Commentaries on MerchantsCommentaries on MerchantsSome people hold grudges a long time. This must make them unhappy -- having to remember to dislike something or somebody. I do not have this problem: when someone or something is offensive to me, I turn it off and do not think about it or even see it. I do not think about it, I do not worry about it: I just turn it off. I invalidate it or them. They do not cross my mind ever again.
There are several companies with which I do not do business. I would name them but I do not know who they are -- I do not see them. It is easier this way. I have a permanent grudge against the US Post Office but, by law, I cannot ignore them. The following are a few I do remember – and I try to remember, the list grows.
There are two reasons for a sale price: to offload unwanted merchandise and to get you into the store. The red flags are waving -- be aware that you are heading into dangerous territory. Be very aware.
Merchandise that can not be sold at the regular price falls into two categories: overpriced or an expired market window.
Somebody in marketing simply blew it. They thought the market could handle a price and it could not. THis is really a subset of the MArket Window problem. You have merchandise on the shelf and people are not buying it. You could use the shelf space for something that they will buy. You reduce the price and make the shelf available for the other product. i bought a bunch of clothes this week for less than half the original price at Wal-Mart. The items were topical and cute but apparently not cute enough for the front rack. So they are on a less visible rack in the back or they are still in the front with a discounted price sign on the rack. They will fill this rack continuously for items that are left over from the more attractive racks. Wal-Mart is an expert at this. Sort of like Filene's basement. If there still is a Filene's and they still have a basement.
The obvious is easy: Christmas accessories after Christmas. But beware of high tech things on sale. Cameras, DVD recorders, etc. The market window for these products is remarkably short. Why? You never know what the competition is up to and they may leapfrog your product. The expected window for your current product just shortened and you rush to get your new product out. So if you see a really good buy on such an item, Google-search the item and the technology. I have an Olympus 5 mega-pixel camera. I watched the price drop from $600 to $350. I bought it at $350. It is now down to $150. Why? You have to turn the dial to the little running man to get a focused picture. Why? The processor in the camera has difficulty reading 5 Mega-pixels in a short time. The solution: faster processor and faster RAM. It is a good enough camera but it outlasted its window. And when you are checking out cameras, how do you know that you need to hold the camera still like the very old Brownie cameras in order to get a good shot? The price went down for a reason. I thought it was for a simple replacement. I never thought that I would be restricted in such a way as to make the 5 mega-pixels almost useless. Oh. You can reduce the number of pixels used with various settings but this defeats the purpose of the 5 Mega-pixels in the first place.
To get you into the store to buy other things. This also falls into two categories: loss leaders and buy these two and get a discount on the first. I love the loss leaders. These you can usually tell because they are common products advertised at a price that you cannot pass up. This includes milk at less than $2 per gallon (They are competing with the local Costco here). It also includes gasoline at Costco. Costco gas is sold at the lowest price of gasoline in the neighborhood (they check) and since COstco buys on the spot market rather than long term, it may be paying more than the sale price -- but they got you into the parking lot.
But these two and get the first at a discount is dangerous. You may not want one of the products and think the first is a bargain. You end up with a lot of white elephants this way and you waste your money. Now I like Buy.com but they have a bad habit. On a sale item at a pretty good price they include the phrase in smaller print somewhere: "restrictions may apply". Beware of this caveat. The additional restrictions may be hard to find. They may have a coupon that you have to search out and read to find that the restrictions is the purchase of something else. In the meantime you have bought a product at a reasonable price. The return shipping cost of the product will exceed any other savings. Movie deals from Disney fall into the same category: you have to buy a second tape to get the original discount. I hate this practice from buy.com and Disney for as it comes close to bait and switch.
Back in 1968, the semester when I returned to school, I had an experience that really surprised me. When I quit Chrysler, I returned all of the credit cards explaining to the companies that I no longer met their income requirements since I was an unemployed student. Phillips returned the card to me with a letter stating that they appreciated my honesty and I should continue using their card, without interest charges, and without expectation of payment for at least 6 months until I graduated. I kept that Phillips card long after that and preferred their gas as long as I lived in the mid-west. Of various debts incurred that semester, they got paid first.
Shortly after this there was a civil rights lawsuit forbidding the practice of selective interest-free periods. The claim was that it was unfair to charge some people interest and not all people or to charge differing rates. The credit card companies can no longer give their better customers this motivation to use their products. Sad.
When I started investing, one of the first stocks I bought was Philip's Petroleum. Apparently others thought well of Philip's too -- I made a good profit.
Kinko’s is not a library. They are a business. They have Internet access. Many stores are open 24-hours. This is great for late-night travelers like myself. I like Kinko’s because the ones that I have gone to have free access if you bring your own laptop. They charge to use their terminals. This is probably necessary to keep from being overrun with kids. They also have a free telephone for local calls and to save you from paying for calling-card calls.
I notice that since Kinko’s has become a tMobile Hotspot that some of them are now charging for wired LAN access. This is too bad but I understand the problem: why pay for the hotspot when the wire is faster, more reliable, and free?
For this access and the friendly smiles, I recommend Kinko’s to everyone. I buy things there when needed. Since I do not buy much, maybe a good word here will make up for it.
The name change is new but not unexpected. I was inside for 15
minutes before I noticed the name change. The sign looks the same
-- just new words. Same great service. The difference
between FedEx Office (Kinko's) and The UPS Store (MBE): FedEx
Office charges normal FedEx shipping rates. The UPS Store adds a
service charge. FedEx Office has full office services and has
added shipping. THe UPS Store is the other way around: they
are a shipping counter/private mail box with as much office support as
they can cram into a small space. MBE was a franchise
operation. I presume the franchises will not be renewed when they
expire. Stick with FedEx, its easier. But I use UPS when
shopping online because FedEx has trouble with the CRA address.
I like Costco -- I really do. I joined back in 1982 the first chance I got. Well, I joined Price Club (Scottsdale) then and then Costco (Pompano Beach) when we moved to Florida. I liked Price Club better than Costco but the question has become mute since Price bought Costco and renamed them all Costco.
Why Price Club better than Costco? Price Club did not do rebates. They had postage stamps at 10% discount -- not 25 cents per one hundred stamps.
What I do not like about Costco is that they sell MCI calling
cards. MCI calling
cards are always a rip-off and it may take you a while to find out how.
Hooray! I just went to the El Centro Costco. In their book racks was a section of books written in Spanish! It is about time. I really think that WalMart and others who try to make their stores identical everywhere miss out on regional differences. To not sell Spanish books near the Mexican border not only loses a large trade but insults their customers. Walmart, Kmart, Costco, et al know what a large portion of their clientele live near the border and those who live south of the border, cross regularly to buy products in their stores. I also noticed that the El Centro Walmart has the entrance posted in Spanish and English. The Yuma stores do not have the Spanish. Considering that the only bus that stops outside their door goes to and from the Mexican border, I would think that leaving the English off would be more appropriate.
What I say about the Costco stores does not apply to their Online/Internet merchandising. I have found these people to be unreliable and unpredictable. Well, predictably unreliable. They will randomly cancel orders for reasons that are not correct and their "in processing" durations remove any time-saving advantage.
For example, I ordered one of their Toshiba computers online. After a few days they informed me that the order was canceled because I used an incorrect credit card number. This begs several issues. They request a daytime telephone number on the order -- which they did not call. I have all my credit card numbers and information in a file. I cut and paste these numbers rather than having to retype them and introduce errors. (I know -- security issues.) They canceled the order stating that the card company did not approve the account number -- after waiting for a couple of days on an order that is a computer for a girl who is going away for the summer and Costco's offer expires two days after I place it.
I write an email to their customer service stating that they should reinstate the order as there is nothing wrong with the card. That is the default shipping address to a card that has taken 20 online orders in the last 3 months. No response. They must have made a typo somewhere.
I replace the order using the same card (but with a new cut and paste) since I know that that card honors my Yuma shipping address. I also place a second, expedited order using Costco's favorite card, American Express. My Costco American Express card. This is the second day that the new orders are "In Process". I suspect that my email has irritated someone and that the orders are intentionally delayed. It is now Saturday. Their computer offer expires today. They probably do not work on Saturdays -- and if they do, the shipping companies do not. So. If I am lucky, they will ship the two boxes out on Monday. Unlikely but I am saying 'if'. The earliest Yuma will get either of them is "3 to 6 business days after shipping". The earliest I can get it is Friday of next week. Vanessa leaves here on Friday. The very best we can do is for her to pick up a box a Yuma. More likely I take two boxes back to the Costco store the following week and have my money refunded -- including shipping. Everybody has their own issues but if you want something from an online store, make sure it is an online store and not a wannabee. And now Vanessa will not have a computer to work on during her summer visit. I hate it when I try to do a favor for someone and some shipping clerk messes me up.
OK. A few days later and I really do not want 2 computers from Costco showing up. I cancel one while it is in process. I get an email back apologizing for the problems and asking if I want to cancel one of them. I reply yes. This is Saturday. Two computers were shipped on Tuesday. They were delivered Thursday. One had 2-day air shipping costs added. Both were shipped by truck and as it was it was the same truck(s) all the way to Yuma. I have a lot of driving to do today.
Driving complete. I drove 300 miles in heat over 100 degrees in a car with no AC. I had to wait an hour at the Algodones crossing. At least the Costco store was nice enough about returning the items.
I just ordered checks from Costco. I was sorely
disappointed. They say they have most bank logos so that if you
supply the bank name, they will supply the logo. This is not
true. I guess it is your definition of 'most'. In any case,
they would resolve the problem if they just gave you a name list.
So the check looks sort of empty with just a line item name of the bank
down there at the left corner. The checks are glaringly empty for
another reason: they have used a print font size so small that you need
a magnifying glass to see your own name and address as well as the
bank's little line item. Compared to the bank-printed checks, the
Costco-printed checks appear as cheap imitations or as counterfeit..
Sam's Club is WalMart's attempt to compete with Costco. Price
Club and Costco merged primarily to outgun Sam's Club.
The new Costco hs been successful in most enterprises -- and very
successful in outgunning Sam's Club. Since I live near Yuma and
Costco has made the mistake of not having a store in Yuma, I shop at
Sam's Club a lot. When I need something important I drive the
extra 60 miles to the El Centro Costco. I have to go to El Centro
periodically anyway to see my doctors.
Here is what I have found.
|
Item |
Sam's Club |
Costco |
Comments |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Store Brand |
Member's Mark |
Kirkland In general I have found the Kirkland brand to be better than trade brands. I find this remarkable since I will not buy many grocery store brand items. |
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Return Policy |
Take the item to the counter and you get a refund. Best to have a receipt. If not they will look the purchase up on their computer. Things get really confusing if your bought the
item online and
return it to a store -- but they handle it well. |
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|
Soda Pop |
I always buy diet soda -- I must as I am diabetic. I go to the back of the Sam's Club store and they have plastic bottles in 24-pack cases of Coke and Pepsi. Diet and Regular. The problem is a combination of 3 things: - The label on Diet Coke is so close to the label on regular Coke that they are easily confused. Pepsi does not make this mistake. - I look for a six-pack with a Diet Coke label and put the case in my cart. I also buy a case of the Diet Pepsi. - Sam's Club makes no effort to enforce its rule that purchases by the case are the same product. Therefore I leave the store thinking I have 24 bottles of Diet Coke when in fact I have one six-pack of Diet Coke and 3 six-packs of regular Coke. As of today, I am going to start returning the
soda, be more
careful of each bottle, and let Sam's Club know that I think:
they either start enforcing their rule or I shall buy all of my
Coke at Costco (and pay the CA pop can tax). |
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Gasoline |
Sam's Club (Yuma) has a good price but never the best and they may change it by the hour. I have seen the price go up by a nickel while I was shopping. For the last year the Sam's Club has been about 5 to 10 cents higher than the independent up the street from them and a couple of stations on the main street of town. |
Costco gas is the cheapest in the neighborhood. They check. If you are in the neighborhood, trust the price. But beware the neighborhood may be small. The Alpharetta, Georgia Costco is much higher than the Costco down the road. Why? Alpharetta is a small upscale community. Drive up the road to another Costco for cheaper gas.. |
Since gasoline expands greatly when warmed, you
never buy gas
first unless the outside temperature is
below freezing. That is, gas should be the last stop before driving
some distance. This always true. Yuma needs a Costco to keep Sam's Club honest. |
|
|
Produce |
I have actually returned produce to Sam's
Club. I should have
done it more often. It is not the same produce that you find at
the Wal-Mart store and it frequently is so old that even I should have
seen the signs I no longer buy Sam's Club produce. It is
not worth the risk -- and never, ever buy apples from Sam's Club! |
I am sure that with produce someone can tell me about a bad experience with Costco. I have not had one. |
The Wal-Mart up the street often has a better price. It is safer to buy it at Wal-mart. I have yet to find a use for 10 pounds of onions before they went bad. If I buy one onion, I prize it until it is gone. If I buy a bag, sooner or later I resent it and throw the unused ones away. I know -- it is my fault and I hate wasting food. Maybe that is why I resent the bag of bad ones. |
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|
Electronics |
Sam's Club has a larger selection than Costco but you pay the price. They display a select group of high-volume electronic items. Both have many TVs. Both stores have good items here (and bad items) at a good price (but rarely the best price). You can usually do better if you go online but the clubs are convenient. They are also bulk purchasers. This means that they may be selling things past the market window or just plain obsolete. Sam's Club has video capture cards that should have been abandoned 10 years ago. They also have new ones. It takes an expert to tell the difference before you get home and discover that the software is either new German or old Korean and the hardware interface is so marginal that you have to sweet talk Windows into supporting it at all. The manuals are locked into the plastic cases that are impossible to open without a sharp knife. I understand the need for this plastic and I hate the thieves responsible but without the manual it is hard to tell what pig you have in the poke. If you see on the box that it is supported under Windows 95 or earlier that is a good hint you do not want it. New products never heard of a numbered Windows version. |
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Tuna Fish |
Star-Kist (really bad)/ Bumblebee |
Store brand. This is the best tuna I have ever found. |
The link explains my experience. |
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|
Air Conditioners |
General
Electric:
Not the worst experience in my life but close.
Sam's Club has 8,000 BTU for $150. 6,000 BTU for $110.
5,500 BTU for $95. All GE and all meet you as you enter so they
can be unloaded faster. I guess if you still have a large
inventory of Air Conditioners in the middle of August, you either
misjudged your market (unlikely in the desert) or the word is out about
GE. |
Costco had a large shipment of Daewoo in July. The 6,000 BTU units cost $100. They were literally walking out the door. I was lucky to get one. The second week they were gone for the season. |
Like other products, the brands vary. This is my latest experience. |
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|
Perfume |
"Designer Fragrance" I do not
understand. Available at both stores, the packages appear to be
the real thing. Although you get cologne rather than
perfume. But the Polo bottle I brought home had no aroma
relationship to the bottle that I already have that I know is the
real thing. |
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Optical |
I needed a new pair of good sunglasses and some
not so good. I stopped at the reading glasses section and saw sunglasses. I was surprised. And they magnified! I bought a package of two. I was disappointed. Only the bottoms magnified. Well -- that is better than nothing. I cannot read the odometer without some magnification. I then stopped at the optical department and saw what appeared to be higher quality sunglasses. I bought a pair for $25. This is my last pair of anything optical at Sam's Club. The salesman gave the usual warning about not cleaning them with Windex. I know this but I asked about dish soap or ammonia. He said both of these were just fine -- but not Dawn. I also knew about Dawn. The first time I cleaned the $25 glasses with dish soap (probably Palmolive, maybe Joy) the color came off of the lenses. They had been that reflective blue color -- now they were a rainbow of colors around the sides and sort of gray/brown in the middle. They still work, sort of, as sunglasses but they are ugly and I have gotten used to the color shifts when I am wearing them.. |
Every year. Now two years -- when I go up to San Jose, I stop at the Gilroy Costco for an eye exam and new glasses. Why this store? The Optometrist there is a very nice Asian woman who was the first to tell me that I had diabetes. She gave me a very thorough checkup and when my glasses arrived, the prescription was not good. She rechecked my eyes and told me that the primary reason for a prescription to drastically change within a month was diabetes. I went to my doctor -- the optometrist was correct and I was now diabetic. So. I count on her being that good when I get my eyes checked. Since most of my glasses come from Costco, I
have little to compare
them to. I like them. They fix them if there is a
problem. But I have had no problems,
just an occasional screw falls out so I take their guarantee on faith. |
Before I discovered Costco, I got reading glasses with the company insurance exam/glasses office. This for myself and each of my daughters. In all three cases we were badly ripped off. In Megan's cases I actually had to file with the Florida insurance board to get a paper copy of the prescription so that I could take it elsewhere to get good glasses. And his "insurance" cost half the price of new glasses -- and what did the insurance give me? If Megan lost or destroyed her original glasses, she got half off on another pair. I should have read the fine print as that is not what I was told when we got this "insurance". In mine and Bree's cases, we just paid too much -- after the insurance we still had paid too much. Now I pay the $50 or so to the Costco
optometrist and another $120 for
glasses and I am happy. |
|
There are things to NOT buy at Costco (or anywhere else for that matter).
The Costco Motion Sensitive lamp with a 3-letter name, is worse than useless:
Figure it out. Each lamp is 200 watts. Each unit has 2
lamps. 3 units is 1200 watts: 10 amps. My microwave uses less
than this and these things go on and off randomly, mostly on. My
electric bill went up when I installed them as security lights intended
to go on only when someone was wondering around my lot. And my
generator dies when these things are plugged in.
So I replaced all three with the $10 units from Wal-mart each with
two dials: duration and sensitivity. They work just fine.
They also accept normal screw-in lamps (CFL) instead of those special
halogen tubes. So now when ALL 6 lamps are on, I use 6 times 20
watts. This is 1 amp. Much better and much more reliable.
I bought a 4 pack of these things. I should have taken them
back to Costco but there is no Costco in Yuma (dumb on Costco's
part). I went online and Gillette sent me 4 coupons. Why
did I need them? I live in an RV in the desert on the
beach. The temperature inside of my RV gets pretty hot at
times. All 4 of these units dissolved into slush and after
running out of their containers onto my shelves, back pack, and
medicine cabinet, dried into a hard white pile that impossible to get
rid of.
The problem with the coupons is that they do not replace what I
bought. The Costco units are large. Other stores carry
small. WalMart would only accept the coupons for their travel
size. In other words, if I used all 4 coupons I would end up with
less than 1 large unit of anti-perspirant and a lot of plastic.
Again, my fault: I should have returned the junk to Costco and
gotten my money back. Instead I got cheated by Gillette. I
tossed the coupons. I do not need the clutter and I would be
reminded each time I picked up the plastic that they did poorly by
me. If you live where it is hot, do not buy gel
anti-perspirant. They should have warning labels to keep them in
the refrigerator when not in use.
Many years ago, we bought a bag Sam's Club apples. They were
rotten. The next day at another Sam's Club we returned the
apples. The problem was not that they would take them back.
It took almost an hour for the store to figure out what to do about the
price difference between the two stores. The difference was only
a few pennies.
In the Yuma store, every bag of apples (4) that I have bought
has been bad. Bad? Internally rotten. They looked
good on the outside but were bad on the inside. My daughter
showed me how to tell if the apple was old by looking at dryness around
the stem.
I noticed at the checkout the there is a 200% refund on old
product. In my case, I would have to return to the store (120
miles each way) in a timely manner to demonstrate that the apples were
bad. I mentioned this to the clerk. She said that I should
examine the apples before I took them home. I think the store
would frown on my eating or cutting their apples prior to
purchase. I do not think they would even appreciate me opening
the bag and examining all of the apples. But one of us missed the
point here.
The store habitually sells bad produce. It should not be my job to
sort through 20 bags of apples to find the best one. It should
not be my job to return to the store for a bag of bad apples. The
bad
apples should not be being sold. Period.
I have had no similar experience at Wal-Mart up the street. My
daughter suggests that I buy no produce by the bag. I think she
is correct. At least as far as Sam's Club is concerned -- there
will be no more bags of produce. In fact, no more produce.
You may think that I just like to complain a lot. I really do not
enjoy taking out my frustrations on the typewriter. I am just
getting fed up with the product quality at Sam's Club. The
easiest way to select good apples from bad apples: go to a store that
sells good apples.
Sam's Club does
have good pizzas -- but that varies by store. Yuma has good
pizzas,
The reason that Windows XP was released a year late was that Bill Gates insisted that the human interface look like the previous numbered versions. It was like putting an orange peel on an apple because people are used to seeing oranges. You may not like the man but you have to admit he knows his market. I think we owe him a great debt: we could still be typing cryptic lines on a UNIX terminal. I mean such things as typing 'fish' to start a new page on the printer. People actually typed in their names to see what the computer would do. That is cryptic and the only residue is that Mr. Gates refused to add cut, copy, and paste keys to the keyboard and he retained the useless legacy DOS keys: PrtScren, ScrLk, and Pause.
This could go on forever. I really like Wal-Mart even though I understand the negative social issues involved. I really do not like Target because of their egotistical attitudes. Egotistical? We'll get there. Mostly after going to a Wal-Mart and seeing shelves packed with great quantities of merchandise where I can usually find what I want, going to a Target makes me feel like I walked into an expensive close-out sale. Egotistical?
One day shortly after we moved to Boca Raton, I went down to Broward
to find a store to buy a new watchband for my cheap Casio watch.
West Boca is in Palm Beach County and it refuses to incorporate
because all of their mail would not have the prestigious Boca Raton
address, The homeowners association also works really hard to
make sure you need to drive 30 miles to get to a store since stores
contaminate the residential eloquence and their children might work in
customer service-type jobs. This would be embarrassing to the
parents. They lost that one when a couple years later a whole
bunch of useful stores opened along US 441. Small versions of big
stores but they saved the drive to Pompano. (BTW, the homeowners
association lost that one: little WalMart's and Targets have invaded
441).
So I walk into the Target store in Pompano Beach, go to the watch counter, and wait 15 minutes trying to flag down anyone with a Target tag on their shirt. Finally. I stop a woman who says she will help -- and she leaves. A few minutes later I hear a page for someone to help someone at the watch counter. Sometime later a very disgruntled woman marches up to me from somewhere and asks what I want. I show her my watch and tell her I need a new watch band. She asks if I bought the watch there. I said no. I know I did not buy it at that store and it was highly unlikely I bought it at any Target store. She told me she would not sell me a watchband for a watch bought elsewhere. Now I am used to the East Coast sales belligerence. I have run into it before in Dallas and other Eastern stores. There is always the attitude that the customer is a necessary nuisance for their continued employment. They believe it is better to let the customer seek someone to help them rather than bother him by volunteering. I understand this. I do not like it but the East Coast (anywhere east of El Paso) has its own priorities and they look down on us Westerners for having the opposite priorities. But refusing to sell me a product because I did not shop there last week is far beyond the normal East Coast Attitude. I had waited a total of 20 minutes just to be told to get lost. No problem, I can not come back for a long time. Maybe never. Maybe write nasty stories about them on my web page. Maybe. Maybe.
I drove down the street and saw a WalMart that had not been there a few months ago. I went in , showed the girl at the watch counter my watchband and we picked over the selection. She showed me that the ones I picked out did not fit the watch. We found a nice, inexpensive band, and she installed it -- free. I also bought a new battery -- which she also installed -- free. It made a bad day into a good day. I drove back home still angry that I could not shop closer to home. Probably the bad feelings toward Target out-weighed the good feelings towards the helpful clerk at Wal-Mart.
But then I can give you several similar stories. I am not so short-sighted as to permit an isolated incident at one store to write off an entire chain.
Wow. I heard about this and checked out their list. All
but one of my current meds is on the $4 list. I rushed off to my
doctor, got new prescriptions (my old ones had expired anyway).
The prescriptions with refills remaining, I transferred on the
web site. I took the others to the local Wal-Mart (Yuma).
I had to wait over a half hour for the people in front of me.
The line was long and the two clerks waiting on the line were totally
new to the pharmacy business. They had a helper but you wait very
impatiently when you are waiting on incompetence. A week later
the situation was no better. And my drugs should have been able
to be just picked up and gone. No. And the $4? Not
for everyone. I asked why my glucophage was $6. I was told
that these were so common that I got a 3-month supply. For $2 I
could check it out later. Too bad for me -- it was a lie. I
had one month supply. I take 3 pills a day.
My next experience was worse. I walked into the Calexico
Wal-Mart. The TV advertisements say that you can get your
prescriptions filled at any Wal-Mart -- so that Wal-Mart is convenient
for travelers. This is only a half-truth. Remember the
Sears credit card? "Good at any Sears Store anywhere?" -- but the
store you were at had to make a phone call to transfer
information. If the original store was not open or their computer
was not working (frequently), you were out of luck. Well,
Wal-Mart has adopted the same policy! The Calexico store had to
have the perspiration transferred from the Yuma store. The clerk
had no idea why she could not find the renewal until I commented that
it was at a different store. Come back in half an hour. I
came back in 45 minutes. Three people in front of me. One
clerk. After waiting another half hour while the one clerk argued
with the customer (really it was the customer and a very patient
clerk), I and the woman in front of me left. The Wal-Mart
pharmacy clerks will have to learn that it is not their patience that
is the problem -- it is their patients! I shall buy the medicine
in Mexico until I can get back to Yuma and hopefully finish my
prescriptions there. That is, if the Calexico store has not
fowled the system by my not picking up the prescription -- if they
really ever did fill it.
In other words, I should go back to Walgreen's where at least I know
that when I am waiting in line that when I get to the front I shall be
met with some level of competence and that the people in line in front
of me were treated with some level of respect. The money saved
with the $4 is not worth the time lost or the incompetence of the
system.
Interesting. You see all of those lights on in the aisles and
in the frozen food displays? Takes a lot of juice to keep them
lit. Right? It jolted me at first but in the San Luis
Wal-Mart, the lights above and inside only come on when you enter the
aisle. They go off when you leave. Maybe when the
store is busy nobody notices as they stay on a lot. When I
go there, the store is mostly vacant. It is like a ghost town
with real ghosts. Good idea. I think.
Here are some of my comments on restaurants.
When my kids were young and I was divorced (circa 1984) there opened
on 35th Avenue about Northern somewhere a seafood restaurant called
"The Red Lobster". This was sort of exciting as it was better
than a fast food and had the curious name. Curious? I mean
what color is a lobster supposed to be? Sky Blue Pink? In any
case, my kids and got introduced to seafoods with which we previously
had no experience. We liked the deep-fried calamari. The
restaurant had a few drawbacks. It tended to get crowded and its
interior was a hard, mostly wood. This meant that when it got
busy, the noise level was overwhelming. But we liked the food and
we liked the service.
Then something happened. Our little corner restaurant with the
blue and gray trim became something else. Now you could not pay
me to eat there. Why not? What happened to me? Well,
once I took the kids to the new Red Lobster at the corner of Cactus And
Tatum. I had something or other with which I was not
overwhelmed. The others in the party also had their non-descript
dinners. I ordered children's meals for my daughters. This
was a mistake on several parts. The first was that my daughters
know seafood when they see it and -- this was not seafood. I guess
taking them to the original restaurant spoiled them.. I should have
known that we had a problem when the dinners arrived. But I have
good kids and they tried. Their dinners were inedible and I
promised them something afterward. When the cashier asked about
our dinners, I complained that the children's dinners were absolutely
inedible. The "fish" was so tough you could not cut it with a
knife. The cashier just shrugged and asked "What did you expect?"
as she rang up the entire bill. I think this may have been the
trigger point for Bree. Bree has adapted some policies that may
be a bit extreme but having worked as a waitress, she does pretty
well. She is not afraid to ask to see the kitchen. She will
send anything back she does not like -- not to be recooked but to be
removed from the bill. She will also not ever order anything at
all from that kitchen. And this includes a replacement
meal. She knows what the cooks and waiters do to meals for people
they do not like. The horror stories you read about of spitting
and dropping on the floor are true.
But a few years later I went to the Red Lobster in San Jose with my
friend Amy. It took two hours for lunch and the lunch was badly
dried out. We did not have two hours to just sit and wait -- and
the restaurant was empty except for us an two other
couples. We never went back -- not to any Red Lobster. I
always wonder how a chain that started up so well could turn into such
a nightmare.
And now the Red Lobster is fighting national healthier. They
are at the top of the advertiser's list for the maniacal radical right
talk shows. If bad, expensive food and long waits were not bad
enough, they want to make sure that you, your children, and their
employees cannot get good healthier. The issue is more than
medical care -- it is the support of disruptive, anti-democratic
activities, and lying in the media to further their political
agenda. If you want to support a political agenda, support your
local political party office -- not the shouting radio demons.
Of all of the hamburger restaurants, I really like Carl's Jr.
the best. Their Six dollar burger, especially the Western Bacon
Cheeseburger is super. It is the only hamburger in the class with
cheese worth eating. And I like avocado. But their star
does not always shine so brightly for me. I also love milk
shakes. Real milk shakes from real milk and real ice cream.
They advertise these but they lie. Oh. The shake itself is
made from real ice cream and real milk. But the topping!
They ruin the entire thing by putting the equivalent of Dream Whip on
top. A plastic, sugary topping that spoils the entire
shake. So for the next time, I asked for one without the
topping. The shake tasted good but I was cheated: The glass
(plastic) arrived exactly half full. I measured it. This
was an extreme penalty for not liking Dream Whip.
But I solved the problem. I now eat my hamburger at Carl's
Jr. I also love their spicy chicken $1 sandwiches. Then I
go next door to Jack In The Box. They have real milk shakes with
real milk, real ice cream, real whipped cream, and a real red cherry on
top. They also have some interesting flavors. I hate the
choices with Oreo cookie chunks inside. If nothing else the
chunks get stuck in the straw.
There was one other thing about Carl's Jr. I often go to El
Centro for lunch. Once it was late and I stopped for
dinner. I stopped at their restaurant on Imperial Avenue and not
the one by the freeway exit. This one on the main street was so
dirty. I mean after I ordered I went into the bathroom. I
always have to go to the bathroom. The bathroom was so filthy
that I felt dirtier when I came out than when I went in. I felt
so dirty that I wanted to just leave. I should have. But I
hate wasting money as much as I hate wasting food. But just the
thought of eating from such a dirty restaurant made me want to throw it
back up. A couple on months later I heard on the news that a
Carl's Jr. had burned down. My next visit to El Centro verified
that it was this dirt trap. I was always curious. Dirt does
not burn so something else must have burned. I figure myself that
it was arson. I figure that they were about to lose their health
certificate and be closed down. Now a shiny new restaurant is
being built in the same location. Expedient. Out of general
principle I shall not eat there. I know that if I stated these
thoughts any stronger I could be in legal trouble so I must emphasize
that these are just passing thought and wishes and have no basis in
reality -- except for the filth part. I have not gone to the
Carl's Jr. by the freeway in many years so I cannot vouch for them but
them I figure it probably has the same owner and it is out of my way.
This is new to me since I just inherited my dog.
Like Smart and Final (And I guess many other merchants), PetSmart
has a discount card. Also like Smart and Final, I have not seen
ay discounts using the card. What I have seen is a store full of
products for pets. They have a little of everything but not
always exactly what you want. That would take a much larger store
and they are already pretty large. What disappoints me are the
prices. They are really quite high. Like most things, if
you can find it at Wal-Mart, do it and save your money. Here is
the zinger. Anything that I needed that I could find at PetSmart,
I could also find online at about half the price. Half. Or
better. But online pet stores add seriously high
shipping/handling fees. You may save the sales tax. The
bottom is that even with PetSmart's inflated prices, you may be better
off there and avoid keeping a product you do not want just because it
would cost too much to return it. I just get irritated at having
to pay two or three times at the store that I saw the item sold for
online.