Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

I have never really been a morning person, ever.

Ask anyone. Anyone at all (that has known me for any length of time) will tell you that I am not a morning person.

However, for the last two weeks I have been in the office by about 8 am.

The last few days, I have arrived at the office between 7:10 and 7:30 am.

Anyone out there wondering "WHY?"

"Why Ben, why in the world are you arriving at the office that early in the morning?"

One word...

"Rivalry"

(Then you might also be asking "How?", that would be REDBULL.)

Now, it is has been my observational opinion for a long, long time that competition (ie rivalry) spurs activity. Sometimes this activity is sophomoric and counterproductive (though usually funny). Other times this competition can lead to great things, think about the innovations that happen in the tech industry, the competition the rivalry that exists between CPU manufacturers.

That rivalry drives down prices while also increasing performance.

My rivalry in this matter is Jeremy.

He started getting here early. Which led to taunting about how I get here oh so late (around 9:30, though sometimes I would be stuck at the house on a phone call that would force my arrival to be to be more around the 10 - 10:30 area).

So, I started trying to beat him into the office. I beat him a few times, but more often than not even though I was getting into the office earlier and earlier, he was still beating me.

Given that my attempts to beat him into the office were not always successful, I reveled in my few victories, by placing a "You're Late" or simply a "Late" sign on his desk. I think the first one said "Ur L8" which is 7337 speak for "You're Late".

Jeremy then began to reciprocate the late notices. He put a cutout from the Austin Chronicle of Deb from 101x.

Thus, raising the creativity stakes.

I printed out the definition of "late" and put it on his desk.

I then drew (and colored) a giant "L8" on an 8x11 piece of paper.

Lastly, today I put a package of "Now & Later" candies on his desk. However, I used magic marker to make it say "Now Late".

At my previous company my department had gotten into the habit of the last person to get into the office after a specified time (I think it was 8:30) had to buy donuts the next day.

I am not sure that we are a big enough department to start those types of incentives for getting into the office early.

However, I hope to expand the rivalry.

I will try not to take the rivalry too far, but I cannot promise it won't get a little sophomoric.

"In the end it is all good clean fun, until someone loses an eye." (pretty sure that is how the saying goes."

Back to the grind.

laterz

And I appear to have lost my ice scraper.

I have to scrape my car windows this morning. I borrowed the wife's scraper and at the same time scraping her car.

She is on her way to sunny Florida for some customer meetings.

Yup, some place warm. She is none to happy, given that Texas feels a bit like Michigan does at the moment, which makes her very happy.

I told her that I would gladly trade with her. However, I honestly wouldn't even know where to start in doing her job, I have a vague idea.

Well, I got to work early, but not early enough to beat Jeremy into the office.

He and I have had an unofficial competition going to see who can make it into the office before the other.

Jack and Bill are driving down from Dallas for a couple of days of meetings down here in Austin.

I best get cracking.

Back to the grind.

Laterz

I routinely wonder how Circuit City stays in business, every time I see one.

I particularly wondered how they stay in business, when they opened up a new one here in Cedar Park in the new shopping center on 1431.

I mean, given Best Buy's dominance of the Consumer Electronics market I would have thought Circuit City would have went by the wayside a few years ago. I have routinely thought the same of Radio Shack.

However, given the amount of reading I have done about marketing and business in the last couple of years, there is always room for a few competitors. In any given industry segment there will be a company that just dominates the market and typically their name becomes synonymous with whatever it is they dominate. Ie, Coke, Kleenex, etc.

In terms of room for competition there is always room for a dominator and the number two. However in a few industries there plays out to be three main competitors. This I would say is definitely how a national view of it pans out.

Burger Joints
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1. McDonalds
2. BurgerKing
3. Wendy's

Sugar Water
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1. CocaCola
2. Pepsi

Computer Stores
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1. Best Buy
2. CompUSA ?
3. Fry's ?
4. Circuit City

My main point is that there is always room for competition in business. In part because if you can exploit a weakness of your competitor, then you can turn that into a corner stone of your business. The shelves of bookstores and the pages of business related magazines are littered with the tales of how one business turned another's weakness into a key selling point.

However, now we get back to the title of the post.

"Ever wondered how they stay in business?"

I can honestly count the number of times I have been inside of a Circuit City in the last twelve months on one hand.

1. There was the visit to the Circuit City out on Long Island while looking for DS Lites with Jeremy.

2. There was the brief walk through of the Circuit City that they opened up near the office.

3. Then there was this last visit at the new Circuit City in Cedar Park, notably which ended with a purchase.

So, needless to say I my opinion is biased against them, because I never go there. Through the years I obviously never have seen any compelling reason to visit them.

After my experience yesterday there is going to have to be REALLY GREAT SALE for me to want to walk inside of one of those places again.

Here is my list of grievances...

1. "Can I help you find something?" or "Is there anything I can help you with?"

This type of issue is very common with commissioned sales staff, I do not believe the Circuit City staff are on commission. And the double edge side of this grievance is of course being in a store and looking for help and cannot find anyone to help you to save your life. I have been in the situation before looking for help and unable to find anyone in a timely manner.

However, I would prefer not to be asked about every 5 minutes in the store "Can I help you with something?". I mean yeah I was wondering around the store, but there was one individual who asked me that like three times. I probably was asked that type of question about 10-12 times in the hour I was in the store.

2. Your sales staff shouldn't look like they just came in off the street or like customers.

The first time someone asked me "Can I help you with something?" I thought it was a customer asking me. Because the person was dressed in a black t-shirt and black pants (I think he had black shoes too). Oh yeah, his shirt was exactly 100% clean and it was just a t-shirt, no collar, another reason I thought he was a customer. The last reason I thought he was a customer was because of the fact that the front of the shirt read "I dream in hi-def." in the sort of small type print you find on indie t-shirts.

Stores like Best Buy, CompUSA and Fry's have their staff distinguish themselves for a reason. They have their staff dress in colors that are predominantly like their corporate colors or in the case of Fry's they have them wear a collared white shirt with a tie, giving their staff a semi-formal feel.

3. The Check-Out Register.

When the lady was ringing me up, I was a bit confused about where I was supposed to stand. With the Register (monitor and main CPU unit) in front of me I handed my items to the lady on the right hand side. However, the credit card swipe terminal was on the left side, so it was awkward to hand the items on the right and then step to the left to checkout. Now, this might have been my fault. Except I am going to blame this on the staff, because the guy before me checked out that way and no one corrected me.

Aside from the awkwardness issue there was another problem. I could not see the item prices as the lady rang them up. I mean at everywhere you shop these days this has become common practice. I think it probably is one of the single most important customer service improvements a store can have. For a couple of reasons, the one that I experienced next being the most important.

Some I bought rang up at the wrong amount. Which I didn't know about until after I had already signed for everything. Needless to say that was FSCKING annoying. I mean when I was signing for the total it seemed high, but I didn't want to make an unnecessary fuss.

So when I got the receipt I checked the price and then informed the clerk, who had already started checking out another customer in record time (less than 20 seconds), that the item had rang up wrong. The clerk got the manager who proceeded to look at me oddly and ask "Was that price in the ad?".

This brings us to the fourth and final issue.

4. Intelligent, Trained and Knowledgeable staff

So I was asked by the manager if the price for this item was in the advertisement. I made a quick retort of "I really have no idea, the price was next to the box."

The manager and I walked over to the area where I picked up the box and she proceeded to look at the price tag as if possibly if it wasn't real. After looking at it, presumably memorizing the numbers she walked back to the counter and refunded the difference to my check card.

Now, I have never worked in a retail store, most importantly I have never been a manager in a retail store. However, given my experience working with people that had a retail store background, particularly one such individual that worked at I think it was "Limited" or other such place. They were in a management style role and they knew exactly what was on special and what not.

I mean, you're a manager. It's your FSCKING AD, why are you asking me if it is in your ad.

I guess I should cut them some slack the store has only been open a few weeks. Maybe the staff is green or just fscking shitty. But on that same note, if Circuit City is in the habit of sending 2nd or 3rd string manager to open a store, then it brings us back to the title of the post.

Ever wondered how they stay in business?

laterz

Sometimes referred to as Black Friday, sometimes just referred to as that day off you get after Thanksgiving, others view it as the quintessential shopping day (aka Black Friday).

The last few years I have gone out and fought the masses to get something that was on sale.

Not this year, partially cuz I slept in. Had I woken up at about 6am, I probably would have headed over to some gadget haven and purchased something.

But honestly, there isn't anything I can live with out right now.

I spent the morning finishing off a game of Civ4 that I started the other day. A little bit ago I finished off the French toast that I made out of the left over sourdough bread from last night's get together at Jeremy and Nicole's.

That is right, Jeremy and Nicole hosted Thanksgiving last night. They had Gina and I over along with Eddie (co-worker) and his partner Eric. Jeremy and Nicole had purchased a smoked turkey from Rudy's. They made stuffing and mashed potatoes and green beans. Gina and I brought the bread, a bottle of wine and something that I believe is typically called Ambrosia. I usually just refer to it as Gina's mom's fruit salad. It consists of grapes, shaved coconut, mandarin oranges, maraschino cherries, sour cream and marshmallows (there might be some more in there, but that is all I can remember).

We played Guitar Hero III, to which I sucked way more than usual. So bad that I thought my guitar was broken. Nope, I was just way out of practice. Eddie displayed some amazing talent on the guitar.

But I ruled the Halo3 games. What can I say, I might not be able to change chords quickly, but I can frag you before you even know what hit you, especially with the gravity hammer. Of course, as soon as I go on the Internet (Xbox-Live) I get my ass handed to me.

Well, I need to clean up my desk and office a little bit, it is horribly messy. Then I am going to be working on some changes that John has sent to me.

Laterz

Please keep your hands and feet within the crib at all times.

Please remember to put your feet into your mouth at every opportunity, as you will likely not be able to do this later on in life.

If you need assistance with anything or are just lonely, all you need to do is cry-out and be vocal, one of your parents will be over to help you momentarily.

Your parents will be by with the morning food and beverage service soon if they haven't already.

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Everyone who may happen to read this blog please, welcome Eli William Hepfer to the world.

Congratulations Patty and Sara!!!

Eli was born at 6:03 PM EST. He was 9lbs 7oz and 22 inches long.

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Jeremy beat me to putting up a post about Eli.

(I hope the flight attendant style instructions were funny.)