Posts Tagged ‘nonsense’

That’s right, I’m the idea man

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

The town officials were whining in an article in The Auburn Town News, the local weekly, about complying with a rule that states that towns need to post notices of meetings two days in advance, not including weekends [the article makes a point of saying that twice], and saying they weren’t sure if they could possibly install a bulletin board outside of town hall in time to comply with the new rule.

Well lucky them, I live here in town, and I sent this off to the town clerk.  You’re welcome Auburn.

I was reading the article in the Auburn paper about how the town can’t seem to find a place to post notices of upcoming meetings and isn’t sure if it can find the time or money (not really sure which) to put up a bulletin board outside of town hall.

I can’t help but notice that there’s a fairly underutilized sign board right outside of the fire station on the high school side of town.  While I’m sure notices of sales of reflective house numbers are important, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the sign’s owned by the town.  Given the sign is at eye level, handicapped accessible by virtue of being on a paved surface, and likely owned by the town, why can’t notices simply be taped up in there while the town sorts out where to order lockable bulletin boards from?

I know you may come back and day that the back of that sign board is meant for large letters to be pushed into, however it’s not that hard to tape the notices to the inside of the glass.

-Tom

Here’s why brick and mortar stores shouldn’t die

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Everyone touts the ease of shopping via the internet.   It is easy, and the breadth of product available can hardly be beat.  But here’s the problem; in exchange for that convenience you subject yourself to the electronic equivalent to the travelling salesman.

Recently I purchased something online from Benefit Cosmetics for my wife for her birthday.  I’ll be darned if I know if they have a B&M store anywhere, but my wife was kind enough to post a link to something she wanted, call attention to it, and I was smart enough to take the hint and order it.

Then the emails started.  Keep in mind, at no point did I see a “Please pester me” or “Please don’t pester me” checkbox in the checkout process.   Yet a week or so after I ordered I started to get special offers.  What do I care?  I’m a guy who doesn’t wear makeup, and here they are muddying up my inbox.

Being a considerate person (I know…play along), I tried to use the unsubscribe link in their email.  It of course went no where.  I logged into my account, unticked the box for communications, and 2 days later, I have a newsletter from them.

So tonight, I used their contact form and let them know that as a thank you for not honoring my wishes, I’m going to start marketing to them weekly.

I can happily say, however, that when I shop at my local supermarket, it’s not followed up with an email solicitation.  When I purchase something from GameStop in the mall, I don’t get ads following me.  Sometimes it’s worth leaving the house.

I do believe I need to post some more glass to my shop.