Do you buy from a woke company?

It's difficult to make choices when private companies are using wokeness to market--like Target restrooms and Nike shoes--just like they've used the gluten free fad and organic label. It's just capitalism writ large. They know their market is the younger demographic who love to wear their politics on their over priced clothing label. But in the case of being woke, it means they are in collusion, not with the Trump administration, but the shadow government and powerful non-profits that have been at the beck and call of lobbyists and Soros' network for years--the Obama and Clinton holdovers, the lower level civil service who make 93% more than a secular job (at the high school education level). There's a lot of loyalty in that woke crowd and not much knowledge of history.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Woke

Consumer Reports says coupons save money—they don’t

"All told, consumers saved $3.6 billion by using coupons [out of $310 billion], which makes it difficult to understand why only 59 percent of subscribers we surveyed used manufacturers coupons." (Consumer Reports).

Oh, let me count the ways American consumers are fooled into using coupons that

• 1) cover up price increases,
• 2) introduce yet another new product we don't need,
• 3) convince us to buy processed rather than steaming or grilling it ourselves,
• 4) deliver us into obesity with a bazillion snack offerings, etc. etc.

Yes, I know, I can't convince you that food companies don't stay in business by giving away their products, or that coupons add to the cost of your food, so just continue to fool yourselves--with the help of the media that prints or distributes the coupons. The first coupon was a wooden nickel.

ABC suggests there is a free lunch (coupons)

ABC News last night was pushing coupons as a way for Americans to save money in “these difficult times.” The usual coupon queen interviews--trying to convince you that companies on stay in business to give away stuff. Manufacturers use coupons to grab a larger share of the market, and since they don’t build brand loyalty, they primarily just reduce competition, and eventually raise prices for everyone as there are fewer companies to compete for your dollar. And since ABC ‘s advertisers are also the promoters of these schemes, this really wasn’t a news story at all but a pay-off for their sponsors and owners.

Whether it's Groupon, the newest version on the internet, the wooden nickle the oldest from my grandparents' days, or S&H green stamps your mother stuck in little books, . . . I tell you for the umpteenth time THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH!

Calories do count!

This morning at Wal-Mart I stopped in the bakery section and looked at the cookies. We really don't need them, but, my goodness they looked wonderful. So I picked up oatmeal-raisin and oatmeal-raisin sugar free, which was twice as much, and compared the ingredients. Both had palm oil, which I don't think is good for us, but in small quantities, it's probably not a killer. But look at that fat and calories count! The sugar-free cookie was much higher in calories, and it would be my guess that you'd probably eat more of them too, because they don't have the same flavor and texture. The reverse is true with fat-free--usually a lot more sugar.

Americans are getting really picky about chemicals in food, sustainable and organic crops, and natural this and that. But they continue to get fatter. I think we were much better off with sugar and lard and fewer snacks and desserts than with chemically modified foods that don't satisfy, but are always at hand, so we eat more. If you really want low fat or low sugar, either add water or eat less.

Got Milk--cutest website

The Got Milk website had me just staring at all the activity and listening to the upbeat, but calming music. Like a horse jogging on a treadmill. A lot of thought and money goes into marketing campaigns. This is so cute, I almost forgot I went there for a recipe. In fact, I had to look a bit, but click on the blender icon on the lower left, and you'll find absolutely wonderful milk drinks that look and sound like what you might get at one of those upscale juice bars at a trendy health/exercise spa.

Take care of your bones. And don't forget Vitamin D!

Loyalty cards--invasive and expensive

A friend and I had a "discussion" about loyalty cards today. Actually, it was pretty darn close to an argument. I don't use loyalty cards or coupons at the grocery store; I don't play games with my food. And that's what it is--a game to convince the consumer she's getting something for nothing, that retailers are just in business to please you and give their products away. Whether it's the wooden nickle, the green stamp, the sweepstakes game, the paper coupons in the size of a dollar, or the plastic loyalty card that looks like a credit card, the intent is to get you to buy. What I find so insidious about the loyalty card is not just that they can find out what you buy--they could do that without your personal information. It's that your personal information is sold, and that's more lucrative than knowing 1500 boxes of Betty Crocker 14 oz. mashed potato flakes sold on Nov. 20 in the Main St. store (except to Mrs. Bruce who bought 5 lbs of real potatoes for the same price) or 700 cans of Stokley's green beans without salt. Kroger is part owner of a data mining company. I don't even like it when the register at Meijer's (which doesn't use a loyalty card) spits out coupons for competing products based on what I just bought. I pass them to the person behind me. If you think you are being "rewarded" for loyalty or for purchsing brand x, you need to go back to home economics class or psych class and read up on behavior modification. All that nonsense about it being just like the personal service you used to get 40 years ago at the corner grocery is just that--nonsense. Loyalty plans are a huge industry with its own press releases, and that's most of the sources you'll find on the internet, or in newspapers, which are quite dependent on the advertising revenue from the stores using the loyalty plans. I am not in any way saying this is a bad business--but it is a business and their bottom line, not your feeling warm and fuzzy, is what matters.

Obviously, my friend who will travel around to various stores to take advantage of the coupons sent to her based her buying habits or specials and loss leaders, didn't see it my way. We just changed the subject. Here's a recent item from another blog.

"Today’s loyalty card programs are not designed to reward the faithful — they are designed to help retailers gather incredible amounts of data about their customers. They use the data for supply chain management, for marketing and to figure out ways to change customer behavior. A loyalty card program is expensive to run. It requires a lot of storage for all that data and sophisticated data mining tools to pour through the raw data and turn it into useful information." IT Knowledge

It must be terribly hard for a new product to make its way onto the shelves, even if it is fabulous. For now, I'll continue to shop at stores that don't want to follow me home and peek in my pantry.

Watermelon gum, or why I hate coupons

You just can't win with a coupon. I received a plastic, looks-like-a-credit-card coupon from Staples for $10. (Paper coupons are the size of a dollar bill; the original coupon was a wooden nickle--it's inflation.) First I went to the wrong store--it was store specific and apparently they were only sent to certain zip codes. Then the item I wanted, rechargeable batteries, was $19.99, and the minimum amount was $20. I asked the floor clerk about that, and he said Yes, it would count because of taxes. Nope. The check-out clerk said I had to buy something else. So I grabbed a pack of gum, which turned out to be $1.49 watermelon flavored, sugar free, with pieces so small it will get lost in my ample mouth. (I have all my wisdom teeth.) But I did win, in a way. I left the store with only what I came in to buy. Coupons aren't about reducing prices; they are about bringing you in. Or taking you in. Who, but the government, could stay in business by giving stuff away?

Axelrod and Rahm need to rein him in

This constant marketing of the President as though he were still on the campaign trail is over exposure. Axelrod's profession is marketing, and Rahm Israel Emanuel's is dance. So you put the two together and you get . . . a President who dances around the truth and does the splits? As soon as I hear that odd cadence (not black, not white, not Illinois, not Kansas, not Hawaii), I rush to switch channels or stations. It's grating when you can't figure out where a guy comes from. The only thing that has changed since 2008 is the phony diction and rhythym of a black preacher. He learned to talk "black" as an adult in Pastor Wright's church and African American linguists pointed this out before he became the favorite. The Righteous Brothers of the 1960s sound more black than he does, but that's what boomers like. Then the linguists shut up because it seemed to be working, particularly on guilt-ridden moderates. It is a foreign language for Obama--only whites think it is authentic. Because I was a foreign language major and worked with immigrants a large part of my work life, I became accustomed to listening closely to make sure I understood. His accent is the proverbial two dollar bill we used to talk about--although we eventually got one.

On back of the $2 bill, "replacing Monticello, is engraving of John Trumbull's painting "The Declaration of Independence"; because of lack of space, 5 of 48 men in original painting were not included in engraving." Removing a piece of history--imagine that!

Rahm may get the credit for bringing the Democrats into power in 2006 by being ruthless, but in Ohio and elsewhere they got in by pretending to be highly ethical, soft, quasi-Christian wannabees. Also the "scandals" referred to in this review were nothing compared to Nancy Pelosi's. Usually, they were at the expense of gay Republicans, but HEY any sacrificial lamb for the Messiah! Also, the economy started going south after Democrats took over Congress, and it is Congress who has the final say.

"Responsible for everything from handpicking Congressional candidates to raising money for attack ads, Emanuel, a talented ballet dancer better known in Washington for his extraordinary intensity and his inexhaustible torrents of profanity, threw out the playbook on the way Democrats run elections.Instead of rallying the base, Rahm sought moderate-to-conservative candidates who could attract more traditional voters. Instead of getting caught in the Democrats' endless arguments about their positions, he went on the attack, personally vilifying Republicans from Tom DeLay to Christopher Shays. And instead of abiding by the gentlemen's agreements of good-old-boy Washington, he broke them, attacking his counterpart in the Republican party and challenging Howard Dean, the chairman of his own party. In 2005, no one believed victory was within the Democrats' grasp. But as the months passed, Republicans were caught in wave after wave of scandal [concerning homosexuality mostly], support for the war in Iraq steadily declined, and the president's poll numbers plummeted. And in Emanuel, the Democrats finally had a killer, a ruthless closer like Karl Rove or Lee Atwater, poised to seize the advantage and deliver what President Bush would call "a thumpin." From review of The Thumpin' by Naftali Bendavid

Today’s new word/phrase is CONSUMER-DRIVEN

You probably think you know what this means, however, when you find the phrase--usually in health care, technology or food articles--and analyze the sentence or paragraph, you’ll see it is used to mean exactly the opposite of what you thought.* In my opinion, it really means market and/or advertisement driven, or interest group driven, not consumer (you and me) driven. We've all laughed when told all that scummy stuff on TV is what "the people" want. Total nonsense, isn't it? They call that "consumer driven" programming. It's a soft word for "choice," except, usually the consumer hasn't made a free choice, it's been foisted on her. Someone interviewed 50 teen-agers with credit cards in the small brained crowd and found a match for their value system, then sold it to an investor. We've got a "consumer-driven," multi-use, multi-story condo monstrosity down the road from here that some city planner with the heart of a social worker sold our city fathers. So far, they haven't found enough people with $750,000 who want a condo overlooking the parking lot of Kingsdale Shopping Center.

I came across this phrase again yesterday reading a jargon filled paragraph lauding the achievements of an OSU professor who'd completed "the Food Systems Leadership Institute program." Wondering what a food system was and why someone needed to be its leader, I looked up FSLI. I found more mush words about boundaries, challenges, emerging issues, stakeholders and change agents that explained nothing--those are the same buzz words that librarians, health care workers, architects, and auto suppliers get in their workshops and conferences. But I did see the publication “Land Grant colleges' response to the changing Food System” (corrected version, Jan. 2008) had a focus on drivers and actors. A major theme was the "food system should be consumer-driven," and able to change as quickly as the environment it operates in. From there it really bogged down. See if it makes sense to you.

Today I saw an article in the paper on retirement. Seniors are choosing to stay longer in their own homes, thus hurting the retirement/nursing home industry. Now that is something I'd call "consumer-driven." The consumer has no money, the investments are gone, so they can't pay the entry fee. One night on our way home from our date spot, I noticed the parking lot at Panera's was jammed. I'd say that is "consumer-driven." The formerly two income family now has one, but still wants to eat out on the week-end, so they are choosing a less expensive venue. The consumer, not the ad agencies, are deciding.

But just about everything else you see called "consumer-driven" means the advertisers and marketers, bureaucrats and academics thought it up, and that includes all the hype about organic food, nutrition and exercise, and the "choices" in your insurance plan.

*google this phrase and see if you don't agree

Reading to children

You won't find me criticizing this president or the former president for reading to children. This is one important aspect of the Obama presidency no one can quibble with--he's a role model for young men who know nothing about husbands or fathers, and one more--when he was an Illinois senator he posed for a reading poster to encourage children.

But I do wonder about Obama's PR people. Have they never seen how Bush was reviled and ridiculed for being caught in a classroom with children when 9/11 happened? And he was caught out of the White House when Katrina happened? And the Obamas have only been there 2 weeks and are already escaping from the pressure! No, my criticism is for his managers. This is not good. It sets him up for comparison with Bush, who did it first and ignored the criticism--which I doubt that Obama does as well.

Also, some of us even remember how librarians, who vote 223 to 1 Democrat to Republican and choose the books, DVDs and e-sources that are placed on the shelves of your public library and in the minds of your children, dissed the First Lady. They tried to keep Laura Bush, a former librarian, from appearing at the American Library Association. Yes, President Obama, books are dangerous things. Or, at least photos of presidents reading to children are dangerous.

Crappy White Trash Stuff

Placemats with Lionel Barrymore's artwork. It's an interesting way to sell on e-Bay. I followed the link from Books Found who sells on line. You've got to admit, she's got a way with words. I don't read e-bayese, so I don't know if they sold. Nice touch--I think we had carpeting in that green color.

Because the placemat potential is trashed by the fact that some stupid guy in some placemat marketing department who came up with the idea of these placemats ruined the whole thing by printing them on panic-level ugly green backings and then, if it was possible to screw them up more than that, he thought it would be clever to laminate them with apparently the cheapest worst quality laminate he could find in the 1960s.