A fine analysis of the demise of the American Way of Dinner... we're cheaping ourselves to death, but it's stores like Winn-Dixie that started the trend. Those who live by the price cut, apparently, shall also die by it. How does Wal-Mart do it?
Here's a hint: the thirty two cent avocados mentioned in the article don't come from California. And check the COO (country of origin) on shrimp and seafood ... we're talking Mexico and Thailand or Vietnam here - now, granted, the product may leave something to be desired quality wise, but it's the lowest cost! We're cheaper!
And when Winn-Dixie (or Kroger, or Safeway, etc.) tries to pull the same trick and import the same merchandise, they rapidly discover the logistical advantage Wal-Mart enjoys. In the race to the bottom of the price barrel, the best warehousing and distribution system wins.
I've learned that I cannot compete on price: my eggs sell for $2/doz., roughly twice what the local LoBill charges for white eggs, and about 25% higher than their price on brown eggs. My chickens go for $2.50 a pound - that's 2.5 times higher than the best price in the local supermarkets.
And I'm sold out of chickens and about at capacity on eggs.
Unless and until the major supermarkets realize that people are willing to pay a premium for real quality, they will keep wondering why their shoppers figure a thirty two cent shitty avocado from Wally World is better than a fifty nine cent shitty avocado from them... to the Winn-Dixies of this world I say "Go for it, guys, sell me a dollar avocado that's actually good to eat, and not something for a quarter that resembles a cow pie in a jalapeno shell. You can still beat Wal-mart, just not on price."
That the South's giant Winn-Dixie chain has filed for bankruptcy shows the profound changes in the economics of supermarkets.
(link) [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories]00:00 /Agriculture | 1 comment | permanent link
A fine exposition from a thoughtful blog ...
If we are going to eat meat, then the animals we consume should be killed in a fashion which respects their nature and does them honor. To simply slaughter an animal for food is, in our opinion, wrong. The animal we eat must be killed humanely, with honor, and with an acknowledgement that we have removed this animal from the circle of life to offer us sustenance.
00:00 /Asatru | 2 comments | permanent link
This kind of crap really sets me off:
Born in North Carolina and raised in Maryland, Amos is the daughter of a Methodist minister raised in the strict Christian sense that entails. Along with a voracious literary appetite, from her mother she inherited a Cherokee bloodline that connects her to spirituality deeper than any church can provide.
<RANT>
While this statement is undoubtedly literally true, the implication is that only "native" blood can provide this kind of spiritual connection. I got some news for the writer here. All of us, regardless of the color of our skin or the exact content of our DNA, can use our ancestry to connect to a spirituality deeper than that offered by any "universal" religion. For, truth be told, ancestry is the universal religion, and it's recognition is what sets mankind apart from the rest of the animal kingdom.
Perhaps this is a bit of "angry middle aged white guy" backlash here, but I get so sick and tired of hearing about the spiritual "superiority" of various and sundry "native" groups. I don't hold it against the natives, however, as usually it's not them claiming it, it's white, distraught, post-Christian yuppies looking for a new age religion fix. It really pisses off some native American groups when they feel that their religious heritage is being stolen - as much as it pisses me off that mine is being ignored. For the life of me I can't understand what folks mean by "native" in this context - do they think white Europeans have always been Christians, and that Jesus was a blond Scandinavian? White folks was wild once, too!
What really gets me going, however, is the typical reaction of Wiccans and other neo-pagans when a white folkish Heathen expresses the notion that maybe people should follow their own ancestral paths. Instantly, the charge of "racism" or "fascist" is leveled at the poor fellow - but when the Lakota or Australian aborigines make the same claim, they're applauded as defending their native culture from corrupting foreign influences.
Such hypocrisy drives me absolutely crazy.
The Indo-European peoples have a rich, deep and spiritually satisfying path all our own: why we simply refuse to explore it, and insist on attempting to steal others cultures is beyond me. Is it just guilt over our treatment of native peoples? Is it some repressed knowledge that we are responsible for the near loss of our own ancestral heritage?
</RANT>
Amos is an artist driven solely by the creative process, following the music wherever it goes to harness its essence.
00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link
Ah, how words can change ... a few years ago, if an armed warship stopped a cargo vessel on the high seas and robbed it, enslaving it's crew, it was known as "piracy". Today, we call it "drug interdiction". And only recently has the practice of demanding payments for permission to keep operating your company been called anything other than a "protection racket" or "blackmail". Today it's known as "intellectual property enforcement".
The Financial Times reports European exchanges, brokers and traders are preparing for possible legal battles with Trading Technologies, a US software company. The situation is being made harder for potential defendants because the cases so far have all been sealed. No doubt, all those IP lawyers think this is a good thing..."
(link) [Slashdot]00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link
Why don't we just appoint Paris Hilton to the State Department's passport security team?
Despite cries from security watchdogs, the United States plans to roll out RFID-enabled passports without encrypting the personal data, downplaying theft threats. By Ryan Singel.
(link) [Wired News]00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link
Boy, does this ever add some irony to the mix. As Paul Harvey is wont to say: now you know the rest of the story.
AP - Before she was the severely brain-damaged patient at the center of a legal dispute over whether she should live or die, Terri Schiavo was a young woman who desperately wanted to be thin.
(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link
Well, this should make the Republicans happy ... you want fries with that?
The exporting of jobs is now spreading to a crown jewel of corporate America: the medical and drug industries.
(link) [NYT > Home Page]00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link