Seriously trivial thoughts
Businesses spend billions on advertising and promotions to do one thing: Get consumers in their stores to buy their products. Marketing departments are critical in any business. So why then, do businesses often do such a poor job “closing the deal”? Why do they have several checkout lines, but only man a few during peak …
I haven’t read this anywhere, so perhaps I’m among the first to say it, but the effectiveness of the traditional seasonal sales is officially over or dying quickly. What I’m talking about are time-of-year sales like Black Friday, President’s Day Sale, Back-to-School, even Christmas Sales. They are no longer significantly meaningful to consumers. We now …
From the WSJ: “Washington is all in a tizzy and everybody is pointing fingers at each other and saying it’s their fault, the Democrats’ fault, the Republicans’ fault,” he said at a town hall meeting Wednesday. “Listen, I’ll take responsibility. I’m the President.“ He also make clear that it isn’t really his fault. “We didn’t …
I always liked Fred, particularly his role in Die Hard 2. He made me wish I lived in Tennessee when we was elected Senator there. Here’s a video by him on the economy and our current and future government’s “strategy”. It would be SO much funnier if it weren’t true.
My cable modem was unable to connect yesterday, so I called techsupport. After about 15 minutes of holding and the obligatory check-the-lights-unplug-replug, I got an appointment THREE DAYS in the future! Later I went behind the TV and made sure the coax cables were fully screwed in…they weren't. The modem connected right up. Now the …
I friend of my daughter's works at her Dad's telemarketing company selling newspaper subscriptions. I learned some very interesting things about how they operate: When the computer dials, it waits until you say something. At that point, a light goes on and they hear a tone. They often aren't paying attention and that's why there …
The general public always seeks to find a way to make a quick buck. A lot of these people don't have the background–some might say intelligence–to make sound investments, but invest anyways. They've got some money to invest, or worse, borrow money, and it has to go somewhere. A little blind success is often interpreted …
I've had this theory that we will soon reach a point where rising gas prices will result in a significant reduction in traffic. The demand for gas is inelastic, yes, but not absolutely. Demand will diminish if prices get too high. The question is how high. The turning point will be when a significant number …
CNet has an article entitled “Days numbered for tax-free Net sales” The article declares that online sales will all be subject to sales tax very soon. Well, people have been saying that since the days of catalog sales (ie pre-Internet) and I’ve been saying no way for as long. Writers that push this notion have …
I have been predicting this for many years. In my opinion, California (or any of the largest states) would never join the group trying to standardize sales taxes and, thusly, begin to tax Internet sales. Looks like, for once, I was right. On the face if it, it sounds stupid for CA to not want …