I knew the economy was bad, but not this bad...(new sticky)

[IO]

My business has thrived on the recent hospital building spree making this my best ever year. Most of these projects were conceived 5 years ago tho and I expect everything to grind to a halt next year. At least there is one new hospital next year going up that we will do.

[MEA]

PonyBoy -- fewer people with job to get a note for? More people afraid if they day a sick day they will be targets for the next round of layoffs? Or both?

Thanks,

MEA

[PonyBoy78]

PonyBoy -- fewer people with job to get a note for? More people afraid if they day a sick day they will be targets for the next round of layoffs? Or both?

Both could be contributing factors, I guess, but I'm not sure.

Now that I think of it.. if it's late into the evening, I'll usually ask patients, "So, do you have work tomorrow?"  More and more lately have been telling me "no."  Hmm.

[fredd58]

I haven't seen ANY slowdown in local hospital numbers...least not til I talked with same-day-surgery folks - they're one of the #1 $ makers for hospital - no emergencies, all surgeries pre-approved. Numbers WAY off there - makes sense. Laid off = no insurance = no elective surgeries.

On another note - middle daughter works for Kroger's in southern Ohio. They just decided to end 24-hour shopping. Reason? Not cause people weren't coming in - it's because the ones who were coming in at night were doing more stealing than shopping. Also having an explosion of shoplifting during the day as well. They were actually losing money by being open at night - the theft bill got THAT big. Yesterday they arrested some woman who pretended to be pregnant - with an 18# turkey in the oven! They tipped to it because her clothes started dripping - the frozen turkey started melting! They've beefed up security HUGE and have people constantly monitoring the cameras - yet NOBODY saw this woman stuff an 18# turkey in her clothes. That tells me that no matter how much 'beefing up' they're doing, they're still missing a LOT of thieving.

[MEA]

ROM?

[Chesyre]

tellin ya , you will order online or over the phone and pick up your shit soon.  there will be no more going in the store, which will become a windowless box with gun ports , razor wire and sniper towers.

[fredd58]

I thought they got a large percentage of their profits from impulse buying? Wouldn't your scenario put a serious crimp in their bottom lines?

Yeah, but then again, you've got the body at the window - you'd be minus a whole bunch of checkout people, a whole pile of stockers, cleanup people, security people - on second thought, you may be totally right about that one. Depressingly so. Can you imagine the LINES? LOL!! Good god, what a fiasco THAT would be!

OTOH, they'd have to turn it into Fort Knox to keep people out.

[Chesyre]

I thought they got a large percentage of their profits from impulse buying? Wouldn't your scenario put a serious crimp in their bottom lines?

Yeah, but then again, you've got the body at the window - you'd be minus a whole bunch of checkout people, a whole pile of stockers, cleanup people, security people - on second thought, you may be totally right about that one. Depressingly so. Can you imagine the LINES? LOL!! Good god, what a fiasco THAT would be!

OTOH, they'd have to turn it into Fort Knox to keep people out.

things that don't go together are impulse buying and rationing anyways.  Fort Knox ? hardly  shoot one and the rest of the crowd gets real quiet , real fast or they scatter. how bad do you want your monthly calorie allotment ?  i bet bad enough to shut up , wait patiently and behave.
 

[ashmeadskernel]

You know, Ches, you may be onto something there with that business model.  I've got relatives who own a couple hardware stores in high-crime inner-city areas.  They put EVERYTHING behind the counter.  People walk in, ask for what they want at the counter, and the hired help wanders back into the "back room", which is practically the size of the entire store, get the item, and people pay for it and walk out.  They do their own shoplifting apprehension.  At least, they did.  They were having line of credit issues, last I heard, for the first time in over 25 years.

Theft goes up because people steal only what they can't afford - that's everything!  So, private security goes up.

[Kushtaka]

Well, at least Paper Street Soap Company is still hiring...

http://www.paperstreet-soapcompany.com/index.htm

[Randwulf]

things that don't go together are impulse buying and rationing anyways.  Fort Knox ? hardly  shoot one and the rest of the crowd gets real quiet , real fast or they scatter. how bad do you want your monthly calorie allotment ?  i bet bad enough to shut up , wait patiently and behave.
 

Well, I don't know about your neck of the woods, but around here that wouldn't work at all. Folks tend to shoot back...

[Armageddon]

I had to chuckle at this.  From Calculated Risk:

It's times like this that millions are grateful they took all that dead money sitting in house equity and invested it in high yielding granite counter tops.

[Chesyre]

things that don't go together are impulse buying and rationing anyways.  Fort Knox ? hardly  shoot one and the rest of the crowd gets real quiet , real fast or they scatter. how bad do you want your monthly calorie allotment ?  i bet bad enough to shut up , wait patiently and behave.
 

Well, I don't know about your neck of the woods, but around here that wouldn't work at all. Folks tend to shoot back...

if you want your slop , you will shut up and behave just like everyone else. no matter how hur hur redneck rambo badass you are .

[MEA]

Worked my usual Monday split, and too dd the elder to choir rehearsal at church, where they were putting up the gift tree -- it;s for a local transitional housing charity -- gets mothers and young children from shealters/motels into apartments.  For years our church has supplied 30 gifts -- children up to 15 write down something they want, someone buys it, yada. yada -- in the past it's been mostly toys or books and the odd gift card, last year it tipped more towards clothing.

This year, I noticed that the number of cards was up to 50, and with over an hour to kill, I made the following lists


1 Movie pass (no probs with this, BTW, I take my children to the movies at least once and sometimes 2x year, and I don't see any reason why someone else child can't go)
9 toiletries/bathroom items
6 Gift cards, Target
8 Gift cards, Walmart
6 Giftscards, Shoprite
4 shoes
10 underware or socks or both
5 toys (non electronic)
1 laundry detergent

[nomore]

Heh a lot of the charities in this area won't let people ask for giftcards & won't buy them for requesters ...apparently too much abuse of them happens (like parents take cards meant for kids, buy stuff only for themselves)