When you can re-use that old calendar

It seems there’s a website for everything these days.

If you find an old calendar, what years will it be usable again? Check out When can I reuse this calendar? for that information.

Can money be taken out of your checking account without your permission?

by Larry Geller

The answer may be “yes,” scary as that is.

WikiLeaks has posted what appears to be a portion of a trial transcript, along with a description and discussion, explaining how it works.

In a nutshell, it seems that a company providing brokerage, banking and checking services has a mechanism that might be used to transfer money electronically from a checking account. Of course, there are legitimate reasons for doing this. From the WikiLeaks article, the allegation is that:

If true, the importance of these court transcripts is that they show the US company ETrade allows their account holders to transfer money out of other people's accounts, held at other banks, without those account holders' knowledge, permission or verification.

How exactly can this happen?

I have some personal experience of how this might work. One of my credit cards allows electronic checking account withdrawal, and I use it sometimes, if I’m not sure there is enough time for a mailed check to get to them. It’s actually very convenient.

The website asks for the routing number for your bank, which is the first bunch of numbers on the bottom left of a check. It also asks for your checking account number, that’s the second bunch of numbers on the bottom of the check (the third bunch is the check number).  Given those two numbers, they snatch a payment from my checking account. That’s how the bill is paid.

Has my bank been told it’s ok to pay? No, I never told them. I did give permission to the credit card company. The credit card company just takes the money out.

A couple of lessons here—check your statements. Maybe don’t pay all your bills with a check. Why? Well, you’re giving the recipient your routing and account numbers. Why could they not use some website to take money out of your account?

Anyone can find the routing number for a particular bank either on line or just by asking them. The routing number is no secret.

Regardless of the authenticity of the WikiLeaks transcript or the allegation against this one company, if it is really that easy to move money out of a checking account, we need to know about it and think of possible protections.

Technorati Tags: Identify theft, check fraud, electronic funds transfer

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Tracking recalls, a pain, but necessary?

by Larry Geller

Last night we went to Kahala to see the movie Food, Inc. and then to do a little shopping at Whole Foods. Let me tell you, after watching that documentary, it was hard to decide whether or not to buy that piece of chicken we were thinking of for dinner later in the week.

The FDA is not protecting us against the contamination that appears to be rampant in modern American industrialized agriculture. The movie makes that clear.

That’s another article, though. Today I was wondering what the FDA is doing for us exactly, after I was sent a link to a story on an FDA recall of sanitizing products. It seems this stuff you might put on your hands to kill the germs (and products to put on a wound) actually seems to contain germs itself (AP, US Marshals seize sanitizer for bacteria problems, 8/2/2009). The US marshals were called in, according to the report, because the company refused to promptly destroy the products. (More here. The company’s website is here, and although I did not search everywhere on it, I didn’t see the recall information there.)

Ok, it seems the FDA is not totally moribund.

I decided to check out what they have been up to. It turns out that the list of recalls is extensive and a bit scary.

Here is a list of “Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts” on the FDA website. If you are interested in tracking them, they provide a way to get email alerts. I created an RSS feed for the page, which is this. Put the feed in your newsreader if you prefer to get alerts that way.

What’s there? Right now I see cilantro contaminated with salmonella, Chai Tea recalled, some medical devices, raisins and nutritional supplements recalled, “male enhancement products” recalled, more cilantro recalled (it looks like a bad month for cilantro) and lots more.

Major brands and some recognizable items are on the list. For example, General Mills’ 'Nut Lovers' flavor of Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters product (possible salmonella).

Is all this stuff getting pulled from the shelves? Of course not.

Who has all the time to check it out? That’s where a newsreader (also called an “aggregator”) comes in. You can follow it if you like. Or get the salmonella, up to you.

Another source of recall information is here, though it’s less useful. It’s a blog devoted to recalls.

Costco posts recalls on a bulletin board, but who goes there to read it?

Sorry to have spoiled your lunch. Buy local, stay safe. The Food, Inc. movie explains why.

Circuit City reappears

by Larry Geller

It looks like Circuit City, under new ownership, is back—but on-line only.

I don’t know yet if the prices are competitive, but interestingly enough, the shopping cart was willing to give free shipping to Hawaii on that 46-inch HDTV. I didn’t go all the way to buying it, though, so I don’t know that for sure.

A USB cable that I could use and that I hadn’t seen elsewhere, was $9.95 but the shipping was $24.95, so of course I passed on it. My guess is that Hawaii shoppers will have to use one of the re-shipping services, wiping out any potential savings.

Also, check that the warranty on anything you buy is good in Hawaii.

I found I really missed CompUSA when it closed, despite my unhappiness with it while it was here. At least, there was Circuit City. Then that left, as well. The on-line versions of these stores are not adequate substitutes. And how can Hawaii aspire to be a high-tech center of the Pacific when we don’t even have a decent computer store here??

Technorati Tags: Circuit City

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Peel me a grape

by Larry Geller

Send out for scotch, boil me a crab
Cut me a rose, and make my tea with the petals
Just hang around, pick up the tab
Never out think me, just mink me
Polar bear rug me, don't bug me
New Thunderbird me, you heard me
I'm getting hungry, peel me a grape

[Peel Me a Grape, Written by David Frishberg]

Now, that’s luxury. To get someone to peel your grapes for you.

In Japan, peeling grapes is pretty much standard practice, though.

Japanese grapes can be huge (a serving might be two of them), but those have very astringent skins, and it’s a totally different experience to pop them whole or to peel them first. As we know, it’s healthier to peel them anyway, since grapes are often sprayed generously with pesticides. So peeling is a good thing. It’s also easy in Japan—the grapes are either bred or selected to practically jump right out of their skins. We learned the technique when we lived there, though I was never very good at it with the average grape.

Unfortunately, similar grapes bought in the USA are more attached to their outsides. I had long wondered if any were imported directly from Japan so that I could try peeling those. Look, this may not interest you, but if you are in Japan and can get one to try, please do, and then let me know if you are still laughing (you can start saving for your grape treat now, they are not cheap).

So a display over at Don Quijote grabbed my eye. The picture was of the large (if not giant) grapes I knew would be super-special if they came from Japan, and indeed the sign describes the qualities of the Japanese Kyoho grapes. Trouble is, on the left, it says plainly enough, “grown in Chile.” That makes sense, it’s just April here in the Northern Hemisphere, so they would logically have to come from the bottom side of our planet. But wait… over on the right is a “Manager’s Special” sign. The manager says that these are “Product of USA.”

From grape to gripe

Ok, Don Quijote has problems with either their signs or honesty (see more below). So while believing these must be from Chile, now I have a whole new gripe. Why are they being represented as products of the USA if they are from Chile?

Just at that moment a young lady came by with a button that said “May I Help You?” So we cornered her and asked where these grapes actually came from. Picking up a package, we showed her that it said nothing about country of origin (and no, you can’t tell from the bar code, as I found out on returning home and looking it up).

She called out to a produce worker. He was dressed in his authoritative green produce apron and maybe should know. “From Japan,” he replied. If only!

Our helpful young lady shrugged her shoulders.

Oh, well. It’s not important, I’m not going to buy any. At that low price, they can’t be any good (see, we lived in Japan too long maybe).

Attention All Shoppers: Caveat emptor

If this were just an isolated instance, it would be of no importance whatsoever. Stuff happens in retail. But Don Quijote has had some very interesting signage.

For example, just before the Christmas holidays:

Here’s a Coby MPC-883 MP3 player advertised as a “Christmas Special Price.” In fact, an “Amazing Price!!” with two exclamation points.

I had been looking for a cheap player with more capacity than my ancient 256 MB Muvo Slim (a great player, by the way, for its time). So the price looked familiar to me, from scanning the shelves on prior visits. Wasn’t that the regular, not-so-amazing (!!) price? I had thought it was too much for a player without a display, and Coby isn’t a brand I’m too fond of. Wasn’t this the same player, at the same price, that I had seen earlier?

Nearby, just around the corner, was the answer:

Yup, the same player, at the same “Everyday Low” not-so-amazing price.

After Christmas, this is the price that remained on the item.

Of course, we know this happens in retail.

Moving on… well before the holidays I had noted this amusing product (one of the pleasures of shopping at Don Quijote for me is running into this stuff):

Yup, that’s a replica of the famous Belgian statue "Manneken Pis"immortalized in plastic on top of a drink dispenser. The Japanese on the box to the left, translated, is roughly “Saaa… drink up!”

I suppose it might be trying to evoke that great feeling when you finally do locate a public restroom. Or maybe not, I’m not sure.

A cellphone camera is a great thing. I also snapped this picture of the drink dispenser:

The box to the right advises that it is suitable for anyone from kids to adults.

Yeah, it’s a different culture, over there.

So this drink dispenser is supposed to be at home on the family dinner table or something.

Aside from the amusement factor, there was this sign, which is why I started snapping in the first place:

The sign clearly states that it is an “Electronic Soda Dispenser.” Hmm, thought I, if you put anything with gas in it (like beer?), wouldn’t it, um, be pissing all by itself while you ate dinner around it? After all, it’s just a container with a little pump. Checking further (click on the pic for larger), it says less prominently that it is not suitable for soda. The box did not say anything about soda that I could find, this is a Don Quijote invention.

Of course, we know this happens in retail.

The problem with Don Quijote is, it happens too often. I don’t snap pictures of every suspicious sign I see. Their signs are big and bold, something I appreciate and which is unique to this chain. It would be nice if they were not misleading. I don’t know whether I can trust any of them.

Beware Circuit City liquidation

by Larry Geller

The liquidation of the Circuit City stores will follow a similar pattern to the recent selloff of CompUSA. The liquidation is in the hands of professionals (Hilco Trading Company). Hilco was one of three firms that handled the liquidation of $1.8 billion Montgomery Ward when it closed up. They are good at what they do, which is to get top dollar for what they have purchased.

So visiting a Circuit City store now hoping for a bargain is not the best thing for the gullible. Just because the sign says 20% off doesn’t mean you can’t do better elsewhere. It’s important to check.

Circuit City’s website was hurriedly taken down, probably to avoid price comparisons with “marked down” prices in the stores. Observant bloggers have already noted that the bargains are really not bargains.

A useful article I recommend reading is Circuit City Liquidation Sale Price Switch-Can You Beat It or Will It Beat You? on the HDGuru website. The writer made it to the Circuit City website before it was taken down and recorded some HDTV prices.

Model	Store Price	10% Off Price	Web Page Price
Samsung/PN50A550	$1999.99	$1799.99	$1699.99
Samsung/LN46A550	$1699.99	$1529.99	$1449.99
Samsung/LN52A750	$2999.99	$2699.99	$2699.99
Sony/KDL40V4100	$1399.99	$1259.99	$1199.99
Sony/KDL52XBR6	$3499.99	$3149.99	$3299.99

There’s an update to their article here, along with more prices and the conclusion: No deal.

Now, most us us will not have the advantage of this research. You just have to do your own. HDTV.com also gives advice about checking out the TV before purchase and on checking for concealed damage (they say that if you don’t check, the manufacturer might not honor the warranty).

Speaking of warranties, we’ve mentioned before that there are some special warranty issues if you live in Hawaii. Some companies don’t provide a warranty for products sold in Hawaii. We had to return an LCD monitor to Best Buy because, as we discovered when we opened it, the warranty was not valid here.

Another problem is that you will be depending on the manufacturer for repairs. If they require you to pay to ship your purchase back to them, it could easily more than wipe out any savings from purchase at a liquidation sale.

So caveat emptor. Tread carefully among the “bargains” and do your homework. The liquidators have one mission, and that’s to move the stuff out at the best price they can get. That’s it. The rest is up to you.

It’s not just candy bars that shrink

Some supermarkets have jacked up prices more than others on a particular item. It’s hard for the consumer to tell whether increases are due to the higher cost of ingredients or just plain price gouging.

When the manufacturer shrinks the product, it’s easier to detect. Tropicana, which makes a not-bad fresh (not from concentrate) orange juice which we’ll buy when it is on sale and Florida Natural is not, must think we consumers are pretty dumb, though. They are promoting a new bottle as though it’s something so great we should rush out and buy it right away. In actuality, they’ve shrunk the product from 96 ounces before to 89 ounces in this new packaging. That’s almost one serving disappeared.

In exchange, we are supposed to love this new bottle. That’s hard to do. You’ll be cursing at it should it fall off your refrigerator shelf after opening.

The big deal is supposed to be the new cap. On the front it says “New easy pour pitcher,” and the back suggests pushing in the center to hear a snapping noise as it shuts.

Opening the cover initially is more difficult than just unscrewing the cap on the usual pitcher. Shutting it is easy enough wherever you push. I found myself pushing on the front lip of the cap so as not to hear the stupid “snap.”

What’s much worse, though, is that if you should accidentally drop a container with a typical screw cap, chances are that nothing will spill (it’s happened to me). With this container, the cap can pop open and you might have a few choice words for Tropicana about the convenience of their new pitcher.

To test this, I took my empty Tropicana pitcher into the bathroom, filled it 2/3 or so with water, and dropped it onto its side from a height approximating the top shelf in my fridge (on a side-by-side model, the shelves would be even higher). Sure enough, the cap popped open and water began gurgling out. Three times out of three. Your mileage may vary, but it may not.

So much for the great advantage of the new bottle design.

(Click any of the pictures for larger image.)

(Yes, the picture is tilted, because the bottom of the container bulges out.)

The Nutrition Facts on the back still show a serving size of 8 ounces. The old 96-ounce size would have held 12 servings. This one is almost one serving short.

Consumers have a choice. You can buy this bottle or not. 

We are not sheep, we have intelligence. Let’s use it. If you have a calculator handy in your cell phone or PDA, check for which brand is cheaper by the ounce.

Also consider how much effort it takes to clean up sticky orange juice from the kitchen floor on that day when, not if, a container slips off the shelf (and suppose it runs under the fridge. Ugh!).