Antiques Roadshow pt. 4, the purse

On an Antiques Roadshow rerun (possibly 2018) I saw a lovely, 19th century beaded purse. I was surprised it was valued at only $385. It was beautiful. I wouldn't carry it, but I do have an antique purse. I get a lot of compliments on this purse--a few a week. I'd buy another one if I could find it. A faded denim which can hold my i-pad or phone, with two nice side pockets. Walmart--$9.00. I purchased it about 6 years ago, although I really don't remember, so it could be older. Since it began life faded and worn, it's hard to tell, but it's starting to develop some holes from my pencils.

What an exciting day!

What an exciting day I had.. My purse was stolen at Wal-Mart near Port Clinton, so I had some interesting experiences, working with the staff, the sheriff's office, our bank, finding someone to help me to get ahold of Bob , lots of worry and anxiety. However. Good outcome. By 6 p.m. the policeman was on our porch with my purse. Don't ever try to steal anything at Wal-Mart. It was all on camera--the woman's face, her method, her credit card, the license plate on her car. They must have cameras everywhere. But. It was all with good intentions. The "thief" saw my purse and took it home intending to call me. She contacted the police and she tried to call me (we weren't home, but she's on the answering machine). As soon as her call came in to the Ottawa Co. sheriff, our man knew what it was and went to her home and got the purse and drove all the way to our place and handed it to me. Everything was there, including my cash, credit cards, endorsed checks, Covid vaxx record, and identity (the DL was going to be the worst to replace--I don't carry my birth certificate or passport with me). I think he gave her a lecture that probably scared her to death, and I doubt she'll do it again. Always turn lost items in to the service desk and let them do the good neighbor thing.

But I did find a special angel from Lakeside who saw me about an hour into the ordeal and offered to call the Lakeside administration, got Bob's phone number, then called him and then paid for my groceries still in the cart and stayed with me until the police came. Bless her dear, sweet soul. Another neighbor drove him to the Wal-Mart (with his key to our car) and together we went to the branch of our Columbus bank which was near-by and reported our problems. Whew. All resolved in 3 hours. I had a lot to write in my gratitude journal.

Not a big crisis, but. . .

As crises go in the Bruce family, this was not serious, but my coffee maker died yesterday morning in mid-drip. So today I went to Wal-Mart after the gym to buy a new one. I finally found one that didn't look like the dash of my new Pacifica, but there were no boxes except on the top shelf labeled, "Ask for assistance." So I went to the front of the store to ask an employee for help. She didn't speak English, but after wildly waving my arms and pointing to the ceiling she nodded and set out to find someone. After about 10 minutes of waiting, I went back to find her and through sign language she told me she had asked someone. I kept an eye on her and saw her talking to the disabled door greeter. He very slowly came back to the H aisle and asked what the problem was, and I explained it. He was tall, but greeting customers was really all he could do. And bless Wal-Mart for giving people opportunities to work. He seemed confused, so I asked him if he could find another employee with a ladder. Another 5 minutes and he'd found a short, able-bodied woman who could speak English, and she knew where the ladder in dry goods was. She carried it over to kitchen appliances and climbed to the top of the step ladder (which you shouldn't do) and retrieved the box. I examined the contents carefully, and the four of us decided I'd buy the coffee pot.

I've now made one pot of coffee; it's very slow, and it sort of spits, but after that much time (good thing I'm retired), it's not going back.

The most valuable companies over 100 years

Amazing. 100 years ago the largest, most valuable companies actually had products!. The only one I can see that made it through is Standard Oil/Exxon. By 2017 the top five are all tech--Alphabet is Google.

http://www.visualcapitalist.com/most-valuable-companies-100-years/?

And Wal-Mart.  What change since 1950. When we were in Arkansas we visited the original Walton store, a 1950 Ben Franklin Five and Dime like the one in my home town of Mt. Morris many years ago, but Sam was ambitious and expanded. He didn't like the franchise's rules so started his own chain. It wasn't a Wal-Mart that killed my home town small businesses, it was a strike by a union at the printing plant, then changing technology, then moves to the south by the companies where everyone worked.

http://www.visualcapitalist.com/walmart-nation-mapping-largest-employers-u-s/?

Out and about on the Marblehead Peninsula

I was at a local bank next to a McDonald's today. Noticed the sign for workers at McDonald's. $10/hour. Ohio's minimum is $7.95/hour, higher than the federal. During the Bush years when it was very difficult to get Americans to work in the leisure industry (seasonal), we had a lot of East European and Baltic college students working in Lakeside. After a full shift they'd ride their bicycles several miles to McDonald's and work another shift. Their ambition was impressive, but after traveling when their 10 weeks were up, they went home--with their money.

The bank drive-through had a video camera, so the employee could see everything I was doing.  Well, I was eating potato chips, so I turned my head away from the camera.

We also have a Wal-Mart Super store about a mile from the bank, from which I can’t leave without having spent $40 when I only needed a few items.  Today I was there sort of early, so in the back of the store where I was browsing bikes I will never buy, the employees were having a pep rally of sorts.  Later when I was checking out, I mentioned it to the cashier.  She smiled and said that those at the register weren’t there.  Then she noted that they are only allowed 2 minutes to get from the back of the store to their registers! (It’s a long walk.) The staff there are well trained, polite and helpful.  Instead of pointing if you ask about something, they walk with you to the right location. Also, as is typical at a Wal-Mart, the merchandise is selected to meet the needs of the area, which in this case, is vacation land with a lot of boats and cottages.

Golf carts are very popular in Lakeside. So are cell phones. Unfortunately, many people my age and older are doing both.

Kicking a gift horse in the teeth

Last year Wal-Mart donated $3 million to New York City charities, including $1 million to the New York Women’s Foundation, which offers job training, and $30,000 to Bailey House, which distributes groceries to low-income residents. It’s donated some $22.5 million all across New York state. In 2011, it donated $4 million to a city program that offers summer jobs to young people and since 2004 it has donated $16 million to the city’s charter schools. But corporate good will flies in the face of progressives' agenda so NYC Council has order Wal-Mart to stop. Meanwhile, unemployment and poverty in NYC is way above the national average, and under the leftist regime of De Blasio I suspect will get worse.

http://247wallst.com/retail/2014/06/07/new-york-city-ensures-no-good-deed-wal-mart-does-will-go-unpunished/#ixzz3447pq2rV

Wal-Mart the company and foundation gave more than $1 billion in cash and in-kind contributions during 2012, a record for Wal-Mart or any retailer. If De Blasio doesn't want the money, maybe your organization could use it.

http://foundation.walmart.com/apply-for-grants/local-giving

Mike Rowe—dirty jobs pay well—where are the workers?

I’ve seen Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame on Fox and Friends and on Glenn Beck talk about the importance of training our young people for jobs that are going begging.  Today he mentioned Tulsa Welding School to which he offers scholarships—it has 800 jobs it could fill, if it had the students. He has a foundation to support scholarships and has published a book, Profoundly disconnected.

He said that at the height of the recession in 2008, he was filming at locations that had “help wanted” signs.  There were not enough trained American workers to do the “dirty jobs.”

Meanwhile, Rowe is being attacked for making an ad for WalMart (he did the voice over) which talks about the value of hard work, and that Wal-Mart will be investing $250 billion in the American economy and American made products in the next decade.  On his Rowe’s FB page Sean Murray says, “I thought you were good person. But I just saw your AD that WAL-MART paid for. Your a corporate suck, Rowe.” And that’s mild compared to some I read.

So those who griped that Wal-Mart had too many foreign made products and didn’t pay their workers enough, who picketed their construction sites, are now complaining that Wal-Mart is helping the U.S. economy.  This means it was never about American jobs or American workers, but about trying to destroy a very successful business.

If you want to see hate in action from the ridiculously uninformed anti-capitalists, just read the comments submitted to these videos.  You wonder if they even watched them, or only saw it was about Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart haters have their own Facebook page.

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/11/what-you-need-to-know-about-wal-mart.html

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703960004575427143390869962?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052748703960004575427143390869962.html

http://digiday.com/brands/walmart-social-media/

Minimum wage, no benefits temps hired by union to picket Wal-Mart

The UFCW of Nevada pays temporary workers minimum wage to demand fair treatment and wages from Wal-Mart. Doing the same thing it claims Wal-Mart does.

Working stiffed, the Jon Stewart show.

WalMart believes Moms don't watch Beck

On October 9 I wrote to Eduardo Castro-Wright of Walmart in Bentonville, AR about pulling advertising from Glenn Beck because of pressure from groups like Color of Change and MoveOn.org. I pointed out that they need a capitalist country if they are going to succeed and advertising with Beck, an old fashioned "muckraker" will help restore our economy (even though he's not a journalist--most of them are either dead or cowed into submission by pressure from special interest groups or the White House). Even though there is a black man in the White House, we Americans are being insulted and called racists by the leftist and marxist groups that support him. So when Obama showed he was one of them--prejudging an entire segment of the country in the Gates incident--Beck called him on it.

Do you know what Walmart wrote back? In an unsigned letter some department called "Executive Communications" wrote a reply very condescending to women, addressing me as "Dear Norma," about my "reaching out to us."

"Our ads are targeted at moms, and fundamentally these ads are about saving people money so they can live better. We buy advertising on shows that run the spectrum politically and socially because we want to be on the programs moms are watching. As our core customer, she is "the boss." At the same time, we want to make sure our commercials don't appear in programs that detract from the message we are trying to deliver."

Wow. Apparently they haven't read any of the conservative, politically astute mommy bloggers that I read. Ladies, I think you have your work cut out for you. Walmart thinks you're not interested in the future of the country. And just where is that "spectrum" of different political and social ideas? Even the comedy and drama series are getting their talking points from the White House. Are the moms only watching football? Gambling? Food channel? Those are the only shows I can think of whose outcomes haven't been influenced by the White House directives to continue campaigning for Obama's take over of health care and the global warming myths.

Also, there's a grammatical error in the first paragraph, but I won't embarrass them by pointing it out on my blog. Also, they seem to think Glenn Beck is a cable "news" show--another mistake. Opinion disguised as news is what Katie Couric and the New York Times do.

Wal-Mart--will the left be happy now?

Wal-Mart will continue its international expansion. Yes, the world's largest retailer that revolutionized and streamlined the U.S. retail industry and brought about all the NIMBY activities will continue to grow. Just not here. In the U.S. Providing Americans with jobs. Especially all those industries from whom they purchased, all the private contractors from truck drivers to toy makers, to packagers. I'm assuming they'll continue to fuel China's economy; the goods will just be shipped to Brazil.

Spending on remodeling and adding new stores in the U.S. and Canada will rise only slightly to $4.8-$5.3 billion by Jan. 2010, from $4.5-$5.8. And to create this crunch in the economy, they didn't even have to wait for President Obama to take office for more environmental regulations, higher taxes on profits, more affirmative action hiring policies, more punitive health care demands, or the snooping into undocumented worker demands. They only needed to put a damp finger in the air to sense which way the wind is blowing.

Who is hurt the most? Low income and working class American families. They can't buy the low cost goods, can't get the jobs or contracts. NIMBYs used to hollar that a Wal-Mart hurt the neighborhood, but that isn't true, except in the same way hard surface roads hurt small towns as people drove 20-30 miles to the next city 70 years ago. And that happened in small towns years ago, long before shopping centers and discount houses.

Abstract: This paper estimates the effect of Wal-Mart expansion on retail employment at the county level. Using an instrumental variables approach to correct for both measurement error in entry dates and endogeneity of the timing of entry, I find that Wal-Mart entry increases retail employment by 100 jobs in the year of entry. Half of this gain disappears over the next five years as other retail establishments exit and contract, leaving a long-run statistically significant net gain of 50 jobs. Wholesale employment declines by approximately 20 jobs due to Wal-Mart's vertical integration. No spillover effect is detected in retail sectors in which Wal-Mart does not compete directly, suggesting Wal-Mart does not create agglomeration economies in retail trade at the county level. "Job Creation or Destruction? Labor Market Effects of Wal-Mart Expansion," Emek Basker, Review of Economics and Statistics, February 2005, Vol. 87, No. 1, 174-183

I noticed that Rebekah Gee, a physician and the Robert Wood Johnson Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and daughter of President Gee of OSU will discuss “Taking on Wal-Mart and Other Women’s Health Policy Initiatives" at OSU. She must be recovered from the terrible accident that took her husband's life and injured her this past summer. I'm of the view that if a retailer doesn't want to provide Plan B abortions, they shouldn't be required to. Gee and two other women staged a need at a Wal-Mart then brought a suit. Story here. So no woman's right was violated; no little life snuffed. At the time, Wal-Mart was required by law in Illinois to carry the abortifacient (morning after pill), but not other states. Hmm. Was Obama in the legislature when that one slipped through?

I wonder what women will do when there's no Wal-Mart to run to or it's closed? Just say No?

Wal-Mart no longer stocks my favorite face cream. Maybe I'll sue. I will have to get it mail-order otherwise. It should be my right.

The growth of Wal-Mart

This is stunning. I remember the first time I walked into a grungy, crowded Wal-Mart in Florida. Probably early 80s. We didn't have any in Ohio and I'd never heard of the chain. Several years ago we toured Arkansas and witnessed what it has done for that state. But this growth data is amazing. Seen at Club for Growth. http://projects.flowingdata.com/walmart/

Today Wal-Mart affects everything you do or buy, whether or not you ever shop in one. If it's shipped, or packaged, or stored, or tagged with security, or manufactured, Wal-Mart's methods have influenced it. Wal-Mart's done more for the poor in employment and raising their access to material goods than all the government programs, and probably more for poor countries than all our government bail-outs and aid.

I wish vibrant Christianity or remarkable education ideas could spread like this.

Why should I have to shop around?

Wal-Mart no longer carries the J.R. Watkins face cream I learned to love after purchasing it at the Port Clinton store last summer. I wonder if I can sue to require them to do so? Why should I have to shop around or send for it?

When I was researching the Gee accident story, I see Dr. Rebekah Gee, MD, MPH, an obstetrics and gynecology resident in the MGH/BWH combined residency program in Boston, was a plaintiff the Wal-Mart Massachusetts case forcing the mega-retailer to carry, Plan-B, a product the founders and owners find immoral and unhealthy. It kills embryos--it’s an early abortion without the trauma of thinking about a potential life.

It’s just amazing. Protesters try to force Wal-Mart to relocate or not build, denying jobs and low cost products in the area, and when they do jump through the hoops, they try to force them to change not only their business practices, but their personally held ethics and religious values.

Feb. 14, 2006 (Just in time for Valentine‘s Day, Wal-Mart announces it will carry Plan B) “A new [Massachusetts] state law that took effect late last year following heated debate on Beacon Hill requires all hospitals to provide the morning after pill to rape victims. It also allows pharmacists to dispense the pill without a prescription, but does not require them to do so. . . .

Sam Perkins, a lawyer for the three women, praised the board's decision and said he was prepared to file lawsuits in other states should Wal-Mart not overturn its policy. Abortion rights groups and women's organizations have also urged Wal-Mart to change its policy.

"From our point of view, they've bowed to the pressure of litigation, in part," Perkins said.

The plaintiffs — Katrina McCarty, 29, of Somerville, Julia Battel, 37, of Boston, and Dr. Rebekah Gee, 30, of Boston — were turned away when they tried to buy emergency contraception pills at area Wal-Marts.

The women said they knew they would be refused when they went to the Wal-Marts in Quincy and Lynn and that the action was planned with the abortion rights groups and lawyers.

"I'm proud to be able to tell my patients that they now can go anywhere for their prescriptions," Gee said. "My patients should not have to shop around." “

Gee’s attempt to fill the prescription was not personal, but a part of a planned action by abortion rights groups and Planned Parenthood. President Gee is a Mormon if I remember correctly. Should make for some interesting family discussions.

Now, will Wal-Mart be required to stay open all night, or to rush purchasers to the front of long lines at check-out? Will they need to stock kiosks outside bars on college campuses? How far do they need to go to satisfy the abortion lobby?

3651

My new Wal-Mart scoop

Yesterday I bought a long sleeve light-weight t-shirt at the Port Clinton Wal-Mart. It has a scoop neck, and is just about the most poorly made item I've ever found made in China. But at $5, the price was right, and our weather indoors and out is so changeable, I thought the sleeves were a good idea. This morning I put it on with my $1 loden green jeans I bought at a yard sale in 2001. Looked nice. Then I took a second look. You know what? This is the same design as long underwear, I kid you not. Oh well.

Today I saw another "expose" about Wal-Mart scoop. This time about how it investigates threats to its business. In the old days, retailers just sent shopping snoops into the stores of the competition, or restaurants send spy customers into the restaurants of its rivals to check on the menus or even to its own stores to check on quality and service. The stakes are a bit higher now, and being the biggest retailer in the world, saving Americans billions and single handedly financing the governments of third world countries, Wal-Mart gets tough. So here's my poem about the latest Wal-Mart story in the WSJ in which some of its own snoops gave scoops to the media on the inside security poops.

Tell me why
Wal-Mart can't spy
on the workers it pays
to sleuth in ways
to snoop
for its Threat Research and Analysis Group.

3607

Pick up the phone!

if you are

• a Republican anything or
• a gay man or
• trying to get your kid into an exclusive pre-school or
• having an affair with a fellow astronaut or
• with one of your students or
• a Wal-Mart executive having an affair with a subordinate.

You can commit any sort of flagrant misconduct via e-mail or text messaging or even drive off a bridge with a staff assistant if you are a Democrat--it's expected of you, and you guys know how to stonewall it (no pun).

The latest story about the Wal-Mart VP, Julie Roehm, who was trying to portray herself as a victim of bad old Wal-Mart management problems in the aftermath of her firing, but in fact her trail of e-mail dropped little crumbs through the woods dark and dank to the bed of her subordinate Sean Womack. Now it's public; it's all documented. And his wife turned some of them over to the company. Roehm was using company money for lavish lovers' trysts. (story in today's WSJ)

When will executives and politicians learn to 1) be faithful to their marriage vows; 2) obey company policies about expense accounts; and 3) pick up the phone instead of e-mailing or texting their smarmy thoughts, longings and private yearnings?

You've come a long way baby, but Julie, you've proven women can be equal opportunity chumps and philanderers.

Read what Wal-Mart has done for the poor.

2579 Finances, taxes, consumerism and materialism--what I've blogged

This isn't everything, but it may take a while to find them all.

Alternative Minimum Tax Creep
The burden of student loans
Buy real food
Cashing in on going green
Charitable gifts Joe Biden
Charity CEOs’ salaries
College costs
Coupons TT
Debt management groups
Depression, Great
Donating to the United Way

Economy sad stories
Entitlement crisis
Ethanol and the energy crisis
Families in economic statistics
Fannie Mae
Fees, taxes and surcharges on utilities
Food stamps--what they will buy
The free breakfast
Gambling--the house always wins
Household income
Income tax preparation
Index of Economic Freedom
Love and Money
Loyalty card rant

The marriage gap and poverty
Material well-being of Americans
Minimum wage smoke screen
Mortgages and discipline
New face of homelessness
Petroleum based products--it's not just gasoline
Poverty in America
Poverty series, yet another one
Poverty, who helps
Retiree organizations

Retirees, income sources

Send Mom on a cruise
Six figure incomes--I feel their pain
Social Security
Student debt
Student loans
Taxes--Obama's Plan to save the economy
Taxes, Do the Rich pay their fair share
Thrifty food plan

Vacation home taxes
Wal-Mart and Ted Kennedy
Wal-Mart’s low prices help the poor
Wealth distribution
What I know about wealth and poverty
Why coupons don’t save you money
Why librarians salaries are low
Women’s wage myths
Worst Economy in 70 years
Young people in debt

Excerpts
"Liberals don't want the poor to be happy; they want them to be angry and feeling victimized--dependent on the government and Democrats for special programs. Not programs that lift them out of the bottom quintile, mind you, but programs that keep them right there where they belong--as their power base. The left is getting very aggressive with law suits against WalMart--and it's not just their deep pockets they're lusting for, they truly want WalMart to fail. Gimme back my po' folk!." Wal-Mart’s low prices help the poor

"My gripe is simple: Ellie Kay writes a column on finances, and the question she is responding to is about how to save money on food. According to the question, this family of four spends $700 a month on food. So how does Ellie Kay respond? She claims her family saved more than $8,000 last year on food and household goods by using, 1) manufacturers' coupons, 2) double coupons, 3) store coupons, 4) loss leaders, 5) price comps, 6) sales and clearances, and 7) comparison shopping.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. She's dancing with the guy who brung her. The advertisers. Food companies are not in business to give away their products, but she knows that most American shoppers believe they are. She knows that food companies are heavy advertisers in Meredith's publications." Why coupons don’t save you money

"Whenever you hear liberals whining that the rich aren't paying their share, but they will if we just increase taxes (like Friedman talking about raising gasoline taxes to reduce driving, which would probably hurt the poor the most), they ignore that the very wealthy can hire legions of accountants to protect them with all the loopholes Congress writes into the tax law, loopholes none of the the rest of us can qualify for or afford accountants and lawyers to interpret." Retiree organizations

2049 Tips and Clips from columnists and the news

Lots of interesting topics in the news--I'll check around for links, although even if on-line, they might not be accessible. These are slightly altered or paraphrased (some columnists get a tad heavy on the adverbs and adjectives).

"For those who have longed to go to movies that are uplifting, End of the Spear is one of the best. It is about forgiveness and reconciliation. The Waodani (an Ecuadorian tribe) at first refused to cooperate in the retelling of their past. Then they learned of the violence in American culture and agreed to the film to help us change." Cal Thomas. http://www.everytribe.com website for the movie.

"Organized labor, having tried and failed to unionize Wal-Mart's employees, has turned to organizing state legislators." George F. Will, on Maryland's legislative mugging and social engineering. Their hate for Wal-Mart hurts Maryland's poor and low income by limiting their choices of jobs and reasonably priced products. And if you've ever driven through western Maryland, you'll see that this will be a hardship.

"Most European countries have seen an increase in greenhouse gas emission since signing Kyoto in 1997." WSJ editorial, Jan. 19, 2006. It goes on to say that despite our industrial growth, emissions in the USA have actually declined (slightly). Something like 15 out of 17 European signers are going to miss their targets. Unfortunately, there has been no reduction in hot air by the liberals.

"The battle over wiretaps isn't a legal issue, it is a political issue between Congress and the White House over supremacy on matters of national security." WSJ editorial, Jan. 19, 2006, "Highwire Tap Act." Points out the really bad knowledge of constitutional law the current lawsuits are based on.

When reading a timeline about progress for women in Scholastic's Monthly magazine, I was surprised to see instant macaroni and cheese (1937) and the dishwasher (1949) listed right along with the sewing machine (1833), which truly did make a stunning difference in women's lives. Vol.55,no.5, Feb. 2003. The shallowness of knowledge about women displayed on the chart makes me wonder about the literary accomplishments it included.