Spring Banter

[BrianW]

2 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Automation is already in overdrive....those self-order kiosks are all over the place now so you eliminated a fast food worker with those or a grocery store cashier/bagger. The automation isn't super cheap but once you are forced to decide between paying someone 17 buck an hour or spend the up front capital on automation, it makes sense to do the latter. Contrary to popular belief, a lot of these places run on fairly thin margins and succeed on volume. The volume severely goes down if you have to raise your prices so the numbers stop working.

CT is getting its first Amazon Fresh Market and basically no actual people work in. There are no checkouts or cashier's. You fill your cart and walk out the store.

Shoppers enter those locations by swiping a smartphone at the entry gate. Inside, they’re tracked by cameras, software algorithms and shelf sensors—then charged for what they take when exiting through the designated gates.

[PhineasC]

2 minutes ago, bch2014 said:

1) Suburban Dallas has higher average incomes than rural Vermont.

2) There are plenty of boutiques in Dallas.

3) Am I the only one who doesn't mind shopping at chain Grocery stores? I much preferred shopping at HEB when I lived in Texas vs. the shithole mom and pop grocery stores here in the city... These larger chains generally have better assortment and better prices for the consumer while for employees, they pay higher wages and offering more career advancement than the smaller competition.

What suburbs are you visiting? LOL

Most are wastelands of chain stores and chain restaurants.

I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule, but to deny that local businesses have been almost totally wiped out in many suburbs is kinda nutty...

It's a real issue and denying it doesn't help anyone.

[PhineasC]

3 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

This is true, but I often hear rhetoric that is the opposite. "We can't make a living!!!", etc....but then I see everyone's standard of living like 20x better than our parents in the 1970s/1980s.

They need a MacBook Pro, a brand new iPhone, an extensive wardrobe, a nice apartment, a new car, and plenty of spending money to eat out and take Ubers when drunk in order to have the most basic of lifestyles!

[PhineasC]

6 minutes ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

I am a firm believer that every generation is smarter, not the opposite. Otherwise, civilization would go backwards and not forward. Whether the older folks like how the world changes around them circles back to the change principle, people typically hate change. We like our comfort zones and that’s it. When that gets ruffled, all hell breaks loose. “These kids thesedays, they don’t know what it means to work to make a living.” So we may think Gen Z are lazy and don’t want to work when the reality is they are finding better or easier ways to make the same living, or better, than we ever have. 

There are actual metrics of civilization we can track and for the first time in US history some of them are not improving generation to generation...

It doesn't have to just be a "feel" thing... we can quantify it by looking at factors such as home ownership, marriage/divorce rates, percentage of children born to single mothers, wages, educational attainment, literacy, life expectancy, etc.

The jury is still out on GenZ, but the numbers don't look good for the Millennials who should be in their prime right now. They won't surpass their Boomer parents, it doesn't appear.

[ORH_wxman]

Just now, PhineasC said:

But prices have already been creeping up even at fast food joints. 

Agreed that these places need to operate on volume. Been saying that along. That's why restricting them to 25% capacity and saying they can be "open" was basically the same as making them stay closed.

Yep, the prices are still feeling the wage hike pinch. They try and cut costs where they can but there are employees you have to keep.

[bch2014]

Just now, PhineasC said:

What suburbs are you visiting? LOL

Most are wastelands of chain stores and chain restaurants.

I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule, but to deny that local businesses have been almost totally wiped out in many suburbs is kinda nutty...

It's a real issue and denying it doesn't help anyone.

Uhh, I lived in West Plano which is essentially the model for an upper-middle-class suburb. Sure, lots and lots of chains but also lots of small business, many run by immigrants (in the case of Plano-mostly Asian immigrants). 

The most chain-ified areas are lower-income, ex-urban/rural white areas. If your community's population is stagnant/shrinking and incomes aren't rising, what's the incentive to form a business?

[NorEastermass128]

2 hours ago, Bostonseminole said:

yikes, getting my 2nd today.. 

Good luck. I took an acetaminophen and a nap and now it’s back my typical 97.8F.
 

Still a pounding headache. Got up to 102.2F and I had enough even if the guy at CVS said you want that response for highest efficacy.  

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

Second shot last night... woke up with a 100 fever and body aches... fever is gone but body aches remain.

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

18 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

This is true, but I often hear rhetoric that is the opposite. "We can't make a living!!!", etc....but then I see everyone's standard of living like 20x better than our parents in the 1970s/1980s.

It is harder to make the same living for each generation as cost of living increases outpace the stagnant median income so every gen has to work harder and smarter. The difference now is there is more capital within reach, primarly because of the tech boom, and it’s easier to tap into it.

[NorEastermass128]

Just now, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Second shot last night... woke up with a 100 fever and body aches... fever is gone but body aches remain.

Pfizer as well?  Hit me pretty well. Woke up at 3:30AM with a fever, aches, and chills. Subsiding now. 

[powderfreak]

17 minutes ago, BrianW said:

CT is getting its first Amazon Fresh Market and basically no actual people work in. There are no checkouts or cashier's. You fill your cart and walk out the store.

Shoppers enter those locations by swiping a smartphone at the entry gate. Inside, they’re tracked by cameras, software algorithms and shelf sensors—then charged for what they take when exiting through the designated gates.

That's wild.

[PhineasC]

9 minutes ago, bch2014 said:

Uhh, I lived in West Plano which is essentially the model for an upper-middle-class suburb. Sure, lots and lots of chains but also lots of small business, many run by immigrants (in the case of Plano-mostly Asian immigrants). 

The most chain-ified areas are lower-income, ex-urban/rural white areas. If your community's population is stagnant/shrinking and incomes aren't rising, what's the incentive to form a business?

Why are you referencing an upper class suburb when we are clearly discussing lower-income populations and minimum wage jobs? Clearly there is still a market for boutique shops in a place like rural VT that serves a wealthy tourist market. I said that right up-front. 

The number of "mom and pop" shops that exist today is a tiny fraction compared to what existed decades ago.

[CoastalWx]

My brother in law works in a start up and it's a tech type start up. I'll preference this by saying hopefully most aren't like this...but oye vey at some of these workers. Extremely bright people, but people who are traumatized by Trump, police brutality headlines, COVID-19 etc and need time off to "cope" with these situations. I hear more and more of this. My BIL runs the place and he is one of these younger folks  who literally is just going to contract work out to someone in Albania who would love to take the job. Good luck to some of these folks in this current generation.

[PhineasC]

1 minute ago, CoastalWx said:

My brother in law works in a start up and it's a tech type start up. I'll preference this by saying hopefully most aren't like this...but oye vey at some of these workers. Extremely bright people, but people who are traumatized by Trump, police brutality headlines, COVID-19 etc and need time off to "cope" with these situations. I hear more and more of this. My BIL runs the place and he is one of these younger folks  who literally is just going to contract work out to someone in Albania who would love to take the job. Good luck to some of these folks in this current generation.

You must just be an old crusty Boomer who doesn't understand how these young people are working so much smarter than you did. 

[CoastalWx]

1 minute ago, PhineasC said:

You must just be an old crusty Boomer who doesn't understand how these young people are working so much smarter than you did. 

My BIL is in his early 30s and extremely empathetic to his workers. But to hear him vent about it was eye opening. I'm not suggesting everyone is like that, but if worst came to worst and these kids had to pick up a rake to make a few bucks, that seems like a past thing. I get doing lower wage jobs differently vs what I did. 

[PhineasC]

6 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

My BIL is in his early 30s and extremely empathetic to his workers. But to hear him vent about it was eye opening. I'm not suggesting everyone is like that, but if worst came to worst and these kids had to pick up a rake to make a few bucks, that seems like a past thing. I get doing lower wage jobs differently vs what I did. 

I get it. I never cease to be amazed by the basic skills they also lack. Many of them cannot manage their personal and work schedules, can’t take notes or follow directions, and struggle with prioritization when in a multi-tasking environment. My theory is that college doesn’t really force students to learn these techniques anymore. The notes are simply handed out to everyone and then you regurgitate them back during a test. 

[Lava Rock]

2 hours ago, Typhoon Tip said:

I'm getting my first today ...

I'm hearing this hydration precautionary from a few different sources.

Is there some actual ( at least ) anecdotal accounts where someone got popped in the arm and 10 hours later said, "f*, I wish I had a glass of water"   ?

I mean is there something very obvious about this that transcends the normalcy that the average person is a nimrod about hydration as a baser health requirement and most operate at a deficit ??

I'm not trying to be snarky incredulous as that succeeds at intimating ... LOL, but I drink a lot of water anyway.   So I'm not sure what/where/why the source for that hydrating thing is coming from.  I'm thinking it just applies to the common denominator of dehydrated people ...

I drank 2 glasses of wine the night I got my shot. Felt fine.

[Typhoon Tip]

30 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

My BIL is in his early 30s and extremely empathetic to his workers. But to hear him vent about it was eye opening. I'm not suggesting everyone is like that, but if worst came to worst and these kids had to pick up a rake to make a few bucks, that seems like a past thing. I get doing lower wage jobs differently vs what I did. 

Agree ... there is definitely an 'entitlement attitude' in these ... > 1995 born civilians/generationally ...call 'em cusp of gen-Z up through Millennials. Anyone in that generation has been depicted in satirized cinema to television, to literature in various forms and back, for a reason. It's a naivete over what they have to do, in order to get what they feel they deserve and have.

Almost like afforded rank with relatively less amounts of exerted sweating or toiling to actual merit - another in their charming attributes, too, I'll tell you. ...

It's not their fault, tho? They are a product of trophy culture - granted their births sort of predated that euphemism out in mainstream society, but the seeds of that was in the households back in the liberal 1990s. And frankly - also - the 'zygote' of the WOKE movement can be rooted back then, too.  Also a movement modern convenience ubiquity allows/affords people the time and space to redirect their energy toward this 'recreational outrage' - make them toil in the fields or they don't eat, ..you'll see WOKE evaporate at the same speed as the sweat off their backs. The only thing WOKE is good for is the modern commandment of,  'Duh, don't be a c*nt!'  - that's all. Just f'n say that!

 I mean they're just a product of the only reality they were brought up in - ... They just expect - nothing also to qualify.  Where ever they, whatever they are doing, they expect -

That motive and outlook on reality ...doesn't include shoveling shit for a living - a metaphor for anything less than a socially recognized position of advancing status and/or authority, personal-space ideologies they figuratively believe they are, already in their minds..

[Bostonseminole]

48 minutes ago, NorEastermass128 said:

Good luck. I took an acetaminophen and a nap and now it’s back my typical 97.8F.
 

Still a pounding headache. Got up to 102.2F and I had enough even if the guy at CVS said you want that response for highest efficacy.  

definitely arm is sore right away, took a few hours for the arm to get sore with the first shot

[bch2014]

1 hour ago, PhineasC said:

Why are you referencing an upper class suburb when we are clearly discussing lower-income populations and minimum wage jobs? Clearly there is still a market for boutique shops in a place like rural VT that serves a wealthy tourist market. I said that right up-front. 

The number of "mom and pop" shops that exist today is a tiny fraction compared to what existed decades ago.

The "mom and pop" shops don't exist in brick and mortar settings anymore because they aren't economically viable! If you're going to offer the marginal consumer higher prices, less assortment, and a less consistent experience, they will shop elsewhere.

That said, monthly business formation has grown in the U.S. compared to 15 years ago so the idea that there is less entrepreneurship in current times compared to years ago is incorrect. But maybe that business is happening on Etsy instead of Main St. 

https://www.census.gov/econ/bfs/index.html

Out of curiosity, I pulled down the county level business applications dataset (on that page under "Annual County Data" header) and compared the business formation rate from 2005 to 2019 for some of counties that people hail from on this forum (plus a few others of interest):

State	County	County Code	fipstate	fipscty	BA2005	BA2019	growth rate
TX	Collin County	48085	48	085	7947	15872	200%
DE	Sussex County	10005	10	005	1943	3871	199%
VT	Chittenden County	50007	50	007	1196	2032	170%
TX	Dallas County	48113	48	113	24721	39228	159%
MA	Suffolk County	25025	25	025	6887	10866	158%
MD	Baltimore County	24005	24	005	7280	10757	148%
ME	Cumberland County	23005	23	005	2680	3479	130%
NY	New York County	36061	36	061	38028	47027	124%
MA	Middlesex County	25017	25	017	11786	14348	122%
CT	Fairfield County	09001	09	001	10705	12890	120%
MA	Norfolk County	25021	25	021	5167	6017	116%
VT	Lamoille County	50015	50	015	217	242	112%
MA	Plymouth County	25023	25	023	3415	3692	108%
MA	Worcester County	25027	25	027	4953	5242	106%
NH	Hillsborough County	33011	33	011	3257	3445	106%
CT	Tolland County	09013	09	013	759	760	100%
NH	Coos County	33007	33	007	195	166	85%

Looks like you've been spending too much time in Randolph! Hopefully summer time in Delaware reinvigorates your hope in American entrepreneurship... Just be aware that they might not be brick and mortar stores!

 

[Typhoon Tip]

1 hour ago, NorEastermass128 said:

Good luck. I took an acetaminophen and a nap and now it’s back my typical 97.8F.
 

Still a pounding headache. Got up to 102.2F and I had enough even if the guy at CVS said you want that response for highest efficacy.  

Heh.. the 'guy at CVS,'  eh -

Was he a doctor, or a pharmacist ?   ... perhaps the latter knows more than 'farmer john's internet rant,' sure ... but, how medically scienced is the opinion footed.  I've read specific statements out among the greater ambient din of lies and truths that cloak reality, that directly state that one's reaction to the vaccine actually says less about its efficacy -

so which is which... ? 

My god.  you know, it's a bit ironic and funny how more access to information in this modern realm of dazzling technologies has actually only created a world of ever more bewildering obfuscation

[WhitinsvilleWX]

My drive through boston and cambridge this morning had the same observation as yesterday. 99% masked outside.

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

46 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

You must just be an old crusty Boomer who doesn't understand how these young people are working so much smarter than you did. 

Life is passing you by my libertarian friend. It’s probably a good time to sell the bizz and move to the mountains permanently so you can spend your golden years ranting on SM platforms from your rocking chair.

[powderfreak]

56 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

My BIL is in his early 30s and extremely empathetic to his workers. But to hear him vent about it was eye opening. I'm not suggesting everyone is like that, but if worst came to worst and these kids had to pick up a rake to make a few bucks, that seems like a past thing. I get doing lower wage jobs differently vs what I did. 

Managing people is like adult babysitting in many instances, just at different levels depending on the job, ha.  Empathy goes a long way with a lot of people too. Need to tailor the management style to fit the employees and extract productivity for sure.

[powderfreak]

37 minutes ago, bch2014 said:

The "mom and pop" shops don't exist in brick and mortar settings anymore because they aren't economically viable! If you're going to offer the marginal consumer higher prices, less assortment, and a less consistent experience, they will shop elsewhere.

That said, monthly business formation has grown in the U.S. compared to 15 years ago so the idea that there is less entrepreneurship in current times compared to years ago is incorrect. But maybe that business is happening on Etsy instead of Main St. 

https://www.census.gov/econ/bfs/index.html

Out of curiosity, I pulled down the county level business applications dataset (on that page under "Annual County Data" header) and compared some the business formation rate from 2005 to 2019 for some of counties that people hail from on this forum (plus a few others of interest):

State	County	County Code	fipstate	fipscty	BA2005	BA2019	growth rate
VT	Lamoille County	50015	50	015	217	242	112%

The bolded is pretty much how a lot of folks think.  People love the "idea" of small mom and pop stores and love to support them... but over time they do get pulled to the cheaper, more convenient locations.  It's just human nature.

Regarding Lamoille County which I'm sure is mostly driven in the Stowe area... this economy seems fairly hard to beat down because there are plenty of people with excess money that like to travel.  So when a restaurant or store closes, another one just pops up in it's place right behind it.

The economy here reminds me of Michael Scott in The Office when he's starting his own paper company and doesn't care if it goes out of business.  He says "I'll just start another one and then another one and then another one.  I have no shortage of company names to use."  That sum's up stores and restaurants around here.  If one goes out, another one with a new name just shows up in it's spot.

[MJO812]

King Cuomo

 

[rclab]

28 minutes ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Life is passing you by my libertarian friend. It’s probably a good time to sell the bizz and move to the mountains permanently so you can spend your golden years ranting on SM platforms from your rocking chair.

Good afternoon RI, it seems the flavor of the opinion defines the pertinence of the rocking chair. Many of us add the word ‘fools’ to those two words ending in years. Stay well all .... As always .....

[HIPPYVALLEY]

1 hour ago, BrianW said:

My company is hiring electrician apprentices right out of high school at $15-17/hr. 2 years later when you reach the state mandated hours and get your license you will start out around $30-35/hr. Electricians with 10+ years experience are making $50-60+/hr with endless overtime available. 

My brother is a lineman/foreman for Verizon and makes stupid $$.   He hands my kid $100 bill every time we see him.

[rclab]

2 minutes ago, MJO812 said:

King Cuomo

 

Good afternoon, Anthony. Oscar trying to outdo Big Bird. Then there’s us in the Peanut Gallery, As always ......

[Santa Clause]

31 minutes ago, WhitinsvilleWX said:

My drive through boston and cambridge this morning had the same observation as yesterday. 99% masked outside.

You guys should come to pa...like no masks outside ever...even in Pittsburgh when I was out there a couple days ago. I’d say 1 out of 10 in masks outside.