Let’s Stop Black Friday

Black Friday is a time bomb about to explode. Offer shoppers products in limited supply at great prices and them stand in line, all night at times, just in hopes to get that item. Stores become overcrowded with people pushing and shoving. Products on special have been wrestled from people’s hands. Recently a grandfather got his hands on a desired game, hid it under his shirt to keep others from knowing he has it until he had an opportunity to pay for it, only to be slammed to the ground and knocked unconscious allegedly by a local police officer.

Another lady, not wanting to wait in line decided to pepper spray the entire line to get her desired item. Others have been pushed, shoved and trampled on. I have witnessed someone ripping the product apart in somebody else’s hand followed with, “Do you really want to buy that now?” as they pointed to the ripped and torn apart packing, just because the attacker did not get one herself. I also believe there are hundreds of stories that have not made the news all across the country.

I believe that within the next couple of years Black Friday will be scared with riots and serious injuries. Stores are going to get trashed (which they are now to some degree). At some point Police are going to have to say stop. There’s got to be a better way to offer these products to the public in a less violent method.

Let us all come up with a method to stop Black Friday. Let us come up with another method to offer savings to the consumer yet still get the shoppers into the store. Maybe we need to spread those offers out throughout the holiday season.

I don’t know what the solution is. I just know I will NOT shop on Black Friday again. Maybe if enough people believe the prize is not worth the effort and stop themselves, then Black Friday will no longer be an overcrowded shopping experience with little hope of winning the prize.

My Salute

I was at the local comedy club a few days ago and something that had never happened to me before, happened. Before I explain the event I should give you some background information to setup my experience.

Since the Gulf War started I have seen many displays of patriotism and many people extending the thanks to our military for the sacrifices they give for our freedom. Let us never forget what they have done for us, especially those who have given everything. I stand and salute all of our military to thank them for their service.

I enlisted and proudly served in the US Army for 9 years. I was a Combat Engineer assigned to places around the country as well as Japan, the Marshall Islands (middle of the Pacific Ocean) and Germany. I also rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant, something I am very proud of. The final piece of this puzzle is that I am a Vietnam Era Vet. Although I did not serve in Viet Nam, the US Army decided I was needed elsewhere, but since I served during the Vietnam Conflict (okay, it was a war), I am entitled to be call a Vietnam Era Vet.

Upon coming home from Overseas, both from Japan and the Marshall Islands which were during the Vietnam War, I was met with protesters yelling everything possible to me from “baby killers” to “warmongers”, and badgering me in my face with hundreds of questions full with hate. Upon arriving home I quickly changed from my uniform. Upon visiting my friends, many repeated the same comments the protesters made.

I lost friends because of my service and I was afraid to mention to others that I am in the service. I made it a point to always need a haircut upon going on leave to at least try not to appear so military when out in the civilian population. But regardless of the general option about the military and the Vietnam War, I was, and still am, proud to serve.

As time went on I felt like one of the forgotten soldiers. I met with other soldiers and we celebrated our service quietly and outside of the eyes of everybody else. We saluted our friends who served and those who did not come back. We supported one another.

Over time we were forgotten, and we forgot ourselves. The hate for the war faded with time as other problems of the world replaced those of South East Asia. A new generation came along with a new set of wars in the Gulf, and the patriotic call was made, and America answered.

I believe movies helped stir the patriotic call for the Gulf War. Movies such as “Band of Brothers” and “Saving Private Ryan” showed the horrors of war, but also showed the necessity of sacrifice to protect our freedoms. People were reminded of our greatest generation, those of World War II, where everybody supported our effort, and I saw friends and family, in fact an entire nation, standing behind our military as they performed the tasks they were given. A new generation with a new understanding has emerged.

Now this brings us full circle to where I am today. As I said, I was visiting the local comedy club and the performer asked all veterans to stand. I was one of a handful in that packed room who stood and received the applause of the crowd. The Performer (a comic and musician) thanked us for our service and played a song for us, a beautiful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, Jimi Hendrix style.

Until that day, no one, not one single person, has thanked me for my service. I shall not forget that day. And I ask all of you never to forget to thank our military and anybody who puts their live on the line to keep America safe.

To my family who has served, I thank you. To my friends who have served, I thank you. To people I do not know who have served, I thank you. To the families to those who did not come home, I thank you for your sacrifice, and to my friends that did not come home, I will never forget you.

Blog – Shopping The “Big-Mart” Store

Like many of us do, I shop at the local “Big-Mart” store. You know the one, the huge store that sells everything from groceries to tires. Sometimes this is the only place you can get a particular item. The advantage to the Big-Mart Store is that you can get many of these items at a much lower price than the other stores around town.

A few months ago while shopping at the “Big-Mart” store; I noticed that the grocery department was out of certain items that I usually purchase. They had shelf space allocated for these products but there just wasn’t any product on the shelf. Since some of these products are not available at any of the stores closer to home, I would have to drive all the way across town to another store, which I knew had these products, to get my desired selections. Sometimes I just don’t want to do make that trip for a small purchase.

Recently, I noticed that the allocated shelf space for the products that I wanted, the same allocated shelf space that has been empty for the last few weeks, was now gone. The shelves were reorganized to fill up the missing space and low and behold, the products filling up that space were the store’s generic brands.

I started looking around the store at other product groups and I noticed a larger percentage of each type of product has been replaced with the store’s generic brand. I remember noticing that in the past the shelf space was allocated mostly to the brand name manufacturers and a small corner of each product type was devoted to the generic and/or store brands. Now, the current brand name products occupy a small corner of a product section and the majority of the space is allocated to the store’s brand.

I also noticed that there use to be three or four different brand names for certain types of products and now there are only one or two brand names on the shelves beside the larger selection of store branded products. What happened to the other manufacturers? Did they go out of business? I don’t know.

Some may argue that the store brand is just as good as the brand name. I agree, for some products. Yet there are other products that the brand name is a better quality product than the generic or store brand version. There are some products that I do prefer the brand name version and I shop to purchase those particular items.

Now that my local “Big-Mart” store no longer carries many of the products I prefer to purchase, I have been shopping at my local chain grocery store. Yes, the prices are a little big bigger, but they are more convenient for me and that convenience does relate to some money saved over fighting traffic to the “Big-Mart”.

I have now noticed that instead of three or four trips to the “Big-Mart” store each week, I have only been there once in two weeks. Not only have I have reduced the number of trips to the “Big-Mart” store overall, I have dramatically reduced the amount of money I spend there, I wonder if anybody is doing the same.

It is interesting to note, I started this blog entry yesterday. Today, in the news section on my home page, there is an article describing exactly what I am talking about. Many of the “Big-Mart” stores have been forcing brand names to compete against one another and the brand name offering their products for the lowest price gets the shelf space. Then the “Big-Mart” store fills up the shelves with their own brand.

I liked going to the “Big-Mart” store because it had everything. It no longer does.

A Dilbert Kind of Moment

If you haven't read "The Dilbert Principle" then you must. This wonderful book about management in corporate America will keep you laughing as you recognize many of the topics discussed in the book appear to be taken directly from your office environment. While re-reading this book for the 3rd or 4th time, I remembered something from a past employer which fit perfectly into this book.

I worked for a company at a regular 8-5, Monday to Friday job, that required you work every 3rd Saturday morning. If you were paid hourly you got one afternoon off a week. If you were salaried, as I was, you work 5 extra hours that week (on top of the extra hours you already may be doing as part of your job, but that is another blog entry).

Every year you got 2 weeks vacation that you had to take at one time, that is two complete calendar weeks off. You could not take a day at a time now and then, you had to take 2 weeks completely at one time. But not really. You see, you have to work every 3rd Saturday morning, and if you look at a calendar you will see if you take 2 weeks off, that is taking off after work on Friday, then coming back to work on the 3rd Monday coming up, you have 3 Saturdays in that period.

That means, you have to work one of those Saturday mornings. Or, you have to get somebody to trade with you to cover that Saturday. For me, that was not easy to do because you had to trade with somebody who is capable of doing your job, and was at the same level you are (or higher). Unfortunately, there were only 2 people in this company that did my job (or higher), and the other guy was not very cooperative in schedule changes. So, my vacation was planned usually so I worked the 1st Saturday and then had 2 complete weeks off.

But that didn't always work. Company policy was to submit your vacation schedule for that calendar year in January, where it would be approved or denied (which means you submit a new schedule for consideration). Changes to any vacation schedule was not allowed.

Occasionally, your vacation schedule was changed for you sometimes putting your work Saturday right into the middle of your vacation. I can only assume just to harass us as no logical reason was provided up request. "Conflict with other departments" was the frequent answer. Fortunately, when my scheduled was moved, my co-worker, the only person I could switch with, had his vacation schedule moved also, so he had a reason to accept a switch with me, at least on this case. So it worked out for me.

But I did see a lot of employees work on the Saturday just before they are leaving, or come back a 2 days early to work the final Saturday, and even some were there on the middle Saturday.

Did I mention that the higher up managements have dictated to some lower level management people that they had to switch their Saturdays to cover them as they are not coming in on their vacation?

Glad I don't work there anymore.

P.S. I know this kinda breaks my rule of not talking about the office. I am bending this just a little because this is a past job, I don't live in that area anymore, and this information is common knowledge in the community, so I am not exposing any "company secrets". Nor, am I identifying the name of the company, but most who know me and are reading this, know exactly what company I am talking about.

Sometimes There Is Justice

A few weeks ago I was heading towards work bright and early in the morning. My drive to work usually starts just before the sun comes up and it starts down a regular 2 lane road. Just as I turned onto this 2 lane road another drive approached very fast and stayed right behind, hugging my bumper. Obviously this person was in a hurry and appeared as if he wanted to pass. Unfortunately, this is a no passing area but that has not stopped a lot of other drivers. Today, on coming traffic, only a few vehicles, kept this individual from passing.

Soon I approached an intersection and I needed to turn left to get onto the highway. I stopped at the light and waited with this other car, again, right on my bumper. The light turned green and I turned left onto the on-ramp of the highway.

This on ramp is two lanes and does a sweep right turn and runs under the road I was just on. I looked for the other driver and didn’t see him as I accelerated down the on ramp toward the highway. As the on ramp went under the road I was just on, the right lane of the on ramp merges into left lane, the lane I was driving on, and at the same time it merges onto the highway.

Just as I go under the bridge for the road I was just on, where the on ramp is now one lane, this missing driver appears on the right side of my vehicle, on the shoulder trying to pass. I did a quick check of the highway to my left and I moved over a lane as the other driver slowed down, obviously realizing that he/she was on the shoulder (It was still too dark out to recognize the driver).

I watched my mirrors as this other driver quickly crossed two lanes to the left lane of the highway (the highway was only 2 lanes here with what was left of the on ramp) then accelerated down the highway past me. As he passed me he dove into my lane and slammed on his brakes. I immediately slammed on my brakes and moved to the shoulder to avoid hitting the vehicle, and then the other driver moved back into the left lane, stepped on his gas and was quickly speeding down the road.

Much to my surprise, with this what I now consider a crazy driver now speeding down the highway away from me, the other driver who was in the left lane a few car lengths behind me, who had a great view of this entire incident, turn on his overhead red and blue flashing lights and pulled the driver over.

I had a rather good day that day!

Unemployed – Again

Yes, I am unemployed again. The company I work for, which makes car parts, has laid off more that 1/3 of its workforce over the last several months. I was one of the lucky ones to remain because my job is considered essential. So other departments, especially the plant floor, were hit the hardest. But now the company has let everybody go, at least temporarily.

In order to save costs and to avoid loosing any more talented people, the company has decided that everybody from the CEO on down will get a 1 week furlough this quarter (2nd quarter) and another week furlough in the 3rd quarter. This will allow the company to save some costs and further weather out this financial recession the country and the world is in.

Most people would not like to be laid off, even for a week. There were times in the past that companies would just let people go and when the situation got better they will go out and hire some more. But sometimes you get to a point that you need to keep what you have yet save some money so this week furlough becomes and option.

So I am happy about being laid off for one week. I am not happy at the lost of income and that will affect the bills, but I am glad that I am still employed, if not this week. The company says it will not challenge unemployment claims so I have a chance of recovering some of the lost income.

So, I now set myself up for a week of sitting back and relaxing. I don’t have the money for anything else.

When Will The Prices Go Down?

I was at the store a few hours ago, one of those large mega-marts, and as I was shopping I started to notice a few things. In my house I do all the shopping so I am familiar with many of the prices of the products I purchase on a regular basis. I can usually guess my grocery cart total price to within $10. So, there I was walking the aisles and getting the products I needed and looking at the prices. All of a sudden it hit me.

Then the gas prices started to go crazy in early 2008 the retailers quickly raised the prices of most of their items. “The cost of transportation went up,” they always said. Well that does make some sense because the price of gas has risen to over $4.00 per gallon and diesel fuel, which is used by the big trucks, was even more expensive. So I accepted the increase in price for the products I purchase.

Now the price of gas is the lowest price in several years. While I was shopping for groceries today, I noticed that none of the prices had gone down, in fact a few of them seem to have gone up lately. It would make sense that once the transportation cost was reduce because of the lowering cost of fuels, especially now that the prices are at record lows, the price of the products should have dropped also.

Well they didn't and we, the consumers, are still paying more for our products than we should. Some may say that this is because we are having the worst Christmas season for many years but I disagree. The price of fuel has been dropping for a few months now, well before retailers had any inkling that they would have lousy sales this season.

So what can the consumer do? I really don't know. Me personally, I am going to start to shop at several locations and make note of the prices for the products I purchase. I am planning to start tracking the stores where the products go up in price, or stay the same. It may cost me more in time and money but I plan to spend less at some of these mega-marts. With this information built up over time I should be able to determine which stores save me the most money on certain products.

I am all for purchasing a product at the lowest possible price. I am all for retailers getting a reasonable price for the products they sell. But when prices go up for a reason, they should come down for that same reason.

I Touched History

I had quite a week already. With a father’s day gift from my kids I was able to take a ride on a World War II bomber, a B-17. This is the same bomber that you see on many of the World War II movies with hundreds of bombers flying formation on their way to bomb Germany.

The Experimental Aircraft Association, also called the EAA (which I am a member) has one of the remaining B-17 bombers in flying condition and they travel the country during the summer months showing off this wonderful aircraft of a era long gone. Of the thousands that were built during the war there are only a dozen or so left in flying condition. An opportunity to fly in one of these pieces of history was an opportunity I did not want to miss.

As I arrived at the airport I saw the B-17 sitting on the tarmac shining in its bright aluminum skin. “Aluminum Overcast” is her name. After my check-in I was allowed to walk around and examine the aircraft. Thoughts of hundreds of these beautiful aircraft in formation came to mind. Every war movie I could remember, including the “Memphis Belle”, came to mind.

Since I was part of the first flight of the day, we, the passengers, had to help with the preflight of the aircraft. Those large radial engines must have their props hand turned for 9 blades to insure that oil did not fill the bottom cylinders of the engine during the night. If a cylinder had filled with oil, even partially, and the engine wasn’t turned to allow that excess oil to drain, during engine start the excess oil could cause severe damage to the engine and the aircraft. So, we lined up and each took a turn pushing the blades on each engine, one engine at a time, until 9 blades have passed over each engine.

After the preflight we boarded the aircraft for the flight and I was lucky to get the radio room. There is a hatch above the radio room designed for an emergency exit. Due to the lack of air conditioning in the aircraft, this hatch was left open to allow the breeze during the flight to fill and cool the aircraft.

Upon take off the Crew Chief signaled that we could unbuckle our seat belt and move about the aircraft, so I immediately stood up which put my head outside the top of the aircraft and I took a picture of the tail of the aircraft just as we left the runway. I thought it was a great picture.

The rest of the flight passed quickly has the passengers moved from the various positions in the aircraft. We moved from the waist guns, to the radio room, squeezed between the bomb racks (full of dummy bombs) and we crawled under the flight crew up to the nose of the aircraft, right up to the bombardier’s seat in the very front of the plane.

I knew that I had touched history. Just being in a bomber that had traveled to Europe and had bombed German targets was much to consider. Just the thought of the number of lives lost on the planes like these that were shot down during the war and the hundreds, if not thousands of deaths caused from the bombs dropping on factories, towns and cities was almost overwhelming.

During the flight I noticed a nice older woman standing next to the left side waist gunner position. She looked out the window and held the machine gun in her hands. She was wearing a picture on her blouse, obviously from World War II, of a young man in uniform. Later in the flight I asked her about the picture. She said that was her brother who died in World War II. He was as waist gunner on a B-17. She stood in the same spot on this plane that her brother stood on the plane he was shot down on.

History touched me.