Jump to content

Menu

mellifera33

Members
  • Posts

    1,757
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by mellifera33

  1. Interesting article. I worked in the inventory department of our local Borders store from 2002-2006, and in that time the patterns of how they stocked titles changed. They went from stocking a wide variety of books to keeping shelves and shelves of the newest bestsellers and predicted bestsellers. Backlist titles, which sold predictably but slowly, started to disappear. One of the problems, and people would tell us this while they were browsing, is that non-bestsellers were full price, so people would come into the store, look at the book, and then go home and order it from Amazon. Obviously, the stragegy of mostly stocking bestsellers in each cagegory didn't work, either, since Borders is kaput.

     

    The Amazon model is impossible for brick and mortar stores to replicate. Ten copies of a low-demand book can be kept in Amazon's warehouse, waiting for buyers from all over the world. Barnes and Noble cannot stock a copy or two in each store--that's a money-losing proposition, and they cannot predict which ten stores across the US will actually sell the title, so they just don't stock it. Their problem is that customers looking for "long tail" items, which are most easily found online, will buy their mass market items from Amazon also.

  2. I dug out my last few receipts to get accurate numbers--I was starting to doubt my numbers after seeing some of the prices listed.

     

    At Costco, I buy two gallons of 2% milk for 4.88, two dozen eggs for 3.49, and a 20 pound bag of russet potatoes for 6.49. We haven't bought butter for a while, but I think the last time I bought it at Costco, it was still between 2.00 and 2.50 a pound. It has probably gone up since then. The coffee prices seem about right, but we only buy coffee when we can get a good deal on one of the more expensive brands like Tully's--not more than 5-6 dollars a bag. Flour is still fairly cheap, but I have noticed that sugar has gone up quite a bit. Beef is all over the place. 2.99 for pink slime special gb and up.

  3. As far as Starbucks is concerned, it's a condiment bar. I know this only because I was chatting with my barista at a mall 'bucks the other day and asked why there was no regular milk available (only half and half); she told me that they had to keep the milk behind the counter rather than on the condiment bar because people were stopping in, not buying anything, but filling their kids' sippy cups and bottles with milk. Nice.

     

    That's only slightly more tacky than the poor-mans's latte popular in my area--people buy a shot or two of espresso, pour it into their travel mug, and fill the rest of the mug with milk or half-and-half from the condiment bar. The really gutsy ones then ask the barista to nuke it to warm up the milk. :lol:

  4. The question I have to ask is, why not just let them fail if they can't do the work? I think in the past that is what was done, even here in the US. My DH (an EE), talks about specific classes that were considered weed-out classes. He graduated in 1982 or 1983. I have a feeling it is no long considered acceptable to let significant numbers of students fail -- that a certain number of students must pass the class or the professor is sanctioned? Do student evaluations play into this?

     

    I graduated from a small liberal arts college in 1999 with a biology degree. First semester freshman biology was a weed-out class--iirc, about 1/3 of the class dropped after the first exam, with another significant number dropping after the next. Cell and molecular biology, normally taken first semester sophomore year, was another weed-out. One of my classmates who dropped told me about visiting the prof. during office hours to find a stack of pre-signed drop slips for all of the students who had failed the first exam.

     

    I only encountered required weekly assignments in math classes. Other classes required that assignments be done in order to participate in discussions, but the consequence for slacking was embarrassment, rather than a lowered grade.

  5. Oohhh! How would I find this out? :bigear: Is the "alarm company" the company that monitors the alarm and calls us if it goes off?

     

    I don't mean to sound dumb about this, but we're monitored from a different city and I mail the check there, but the check is made out to the company who installed it, who is local (and **hard** to get hold of!).

     

    Hmm, I'm not sure. We use a large national company, so I just called their 800 number.

  6. They have a great selection of dried fruits and nuts for reasonable prices.

    We also like a lot of their frozen entrees--DH loves the chicken Alfredo, the kids like the Mac and cheese and the taquitos, and I like the frozen coconut milk soup. We buy their frozen berries, mangos, and pineapple for smoothies. They used to carry delicious coconut milk mochi, but I haven't seen it for months. :sad: I like their cheese selection, but I only buy their cheese if we will use it quickly--I have found that it tends to mold quickly. I also like the pre-cut veggies, especially kale and other greens. And their sweets are nice. They have a lot of dye-free options for those who are sensitive. Occasionally I can taste the flavor of the natural colors, though--a slight beet, carrot, or turmeric essence. :lol:

  7. It reminds me of the waitress that took a used dish of salsa from a table that was just cleared, filled it to the top from a pitcher, and set it on our table...and had no idea what we were so freaked out about.

     

    :001_huh: That reminds me of the local restaurant where I watched an employee take a sip from one of those metal milkshake containers before pouring the milkshake into a glass for a customer. We have never returned to that restaurant. :lol:

×
×
  • Create New...