The Mall Mavin

When you can re-use that old calendar

2009-12-08T13:58:00.001-08:00

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?

2009-09-17T14:47:00.001-07:00

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

Tracking recalls, a pain, but necessary?

2009-08-02T17:46:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-22T20:50:00.001-07:00

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

del.icio.us Tags: Circuit City

Peel me a grape

2009-04-22T12:57:00.001-07:00

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

2009-01-19T18:11:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-15T17:08:00.001-08:00

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!).

Caveat emptor--Educating Hewlett-Packard Tech Support

2008-09-30T14:14:00.001-07:00

by Larry Geller

Sheesh. If I hear one more HP tech support person ask me to “make a copy on your machine” (one of those all-in-ones), I feel I might pick the thing up, and still connected to my HP computer, throw the lot out the window so he/she can hear it crash loudly into a thousand pieces on the concrete below.

I’ve spent a total of about nine hours, I think, educating them (this time). When I call back, or when they call me, starting over from scratch is not helpful. My Officejet Pro L7555 seems not to be a bargain after all. It was cheap at Costco, but if I put any reasonable valuation on my time, it has turned out to be a very expensive machine.

And it’s not running yet.

Yesterday, using the remote help feature where they help you out from New Delhi by sharing your screen, I watched as the technician deleted all my printer drivers—not just the Officejet drivers, but all the pdf drivers, the Microsoft document drivers, everything. It all happened before I could grab the mouse to stop him. And he was a “supervisor” of some sort, too. Afterwards, he said, “you don’t need those.”

He crippled my machine. Nothing would run. I couldn’t even open Microsoft Word.

And guess what—when I called back (the line dropped after he deleted my drivers), they say they can’t connect me to the same person. Even though only that person knows what he did to my registry and files. Oh, and could I please see if my machine can make a copy?

This is only the latest episode. I document it here in case you are thinking of buying a reasonably-priced HP product. They are fancy, they seem to do a lot for the money, but beware of the Tech Support Trap. You could be lucky, or, in order to get it working on your new Vista system, your cost in time and frustration may be many times the cost of the machine. Are you a professional? How much is three or more hours of your time worth?

And you’ll have to educate each new technician, because HP has not.

May Google share this post with 10,000 potential HP customers. And with that tech support “supervisor” who got me into this mess. And no, system restore has not worked.

In fact, I found the IP address conflict that was part of the problem, not them. You can know what you’re doing and they can still put you out of commission.

This afternoon I will spend restoring my system. The Officejet is still not working with it (works fine on another computer). I will call HP. Why? Because stupidly I threw away the box and so I don’t think I can return it to Costco. I’m at HP’s mercy for the moment.

There’s another caveat: it’s good to buy from Costco where you have 90 days to waste your time with HP tech support before returning it. Save the box, and save your receipt. Don’t lose the disks. Be prepared to cut your losses and send it back.

Grrrr. Google, Yahoo, find this message and spread the word. Maybe HP will notice and fix their tech support.

Technorati Tags: HP, Hewlett-Packard, tech support, tech support nightmare, Officejet, Photosmart, Laserjet, Deskjet, Pavilion, Compaq, did I miss anyting?

I love raw oysters, but beware these

2008-08-15T20:22:00.001-07:00

by Larry Geller

Just a word to oyster lovers.

I suggest not buying oysters at Costco unless the box is sealed shut.

We were over there today and observed three teenage boys going through the boxes of oysters in the refrigerator cabinet. They were opening each box and handling and inspecting each oyster!

Of course, we called this to the attention of nearby staff, but they took a long time getting over to the oyster fridge, and so the boys were gone. We suggested that they now need to throw out all the oysters in the fridge because they don’t know which ones were handled.

At the customer service desk we suggested that the boxes be taped shut before being put out. Nearly everything has a safety seal, you’d think oysters would also.

Many people eat oysters raw, so we thought you ought to know about this.

Update: An anonymous comment over at Disappeared News where I cross-posted this article warns against the dangers of eating raw oysters that have not been properly processed. Since many people don’t look at comments, I thought I would copy it into the main article here. Anonymous writes:

Check out the website www.rawoysteralert.com. I was shocked to learn that several individuals die each year from the consumption of raw oysters that are contaminated with naturally occurring Vibrio bacteria. Some gulf states have chosen to not take action in order to make raw oysters safe for ALL consumers.

Several years ago, the state of California made a requirement that all imported raw oysters must be pasteurized and since that requirement was put into place there have been NO FURTHER DEATHS in that state.

In order to affect change, consumers need to only accept oysters that are SAFE through post harvest processing or through being cooked. Consumer demand drives the market and the industry would be forced to provide oysters that did not lead to unnecessary deaths.

The website www.rawoysteralert.com has a wealth of information available and also explains how you can help in making the consumption of oysters safe for everyone. Please help us to spread the word and sign the petition.

Reading through the website, it seems to me that the number of individuals who get sick seems low, but on the other hand, one doesn’t want to become one of them. The consequences seem rather horrible!

Knowledge is good, so make your own choice about when/if to eat raw oysters.

Caveat emptor: check your warranty if you live in Hawaii

2008-07-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

by Larry Geller

It’s not new that certain Internet vendors won’t ship to Hawaii. With the price of oil on the rise, that problem won’t be solved any time soon.

I ran into something that I think may be relatively new.

This weekend we went shopping for a 22” LCD monitor. We found a BestBuy ad in the paper that looked promising, and ended up buying a Velocity Micro monitor. They make gaming machines, and this looked like one fast monitor, and at a good price.

While I was setting it up, Nanette read through the manual and warranty card. Oops… guess what… the warranty is only good in the 48 contiguous states and DC. That’s right, no warranty in Hawaii.

So back it went. We took a look at another monitor, a Hannspree, which appears to be a BestBuy private brand. Cheap, good color, resolution, etc. Opening it at the store, guess what… the warranty says that if you need repairs, you have to pay shipping to them (pretty standard). But they will only ship it back to an address in the continental US. Forget that.

So over to Costco. We now have a more expensive but higher quality Samsung monitor with a three-year warranty. They will pay shipping both ways if it should break. It’s not as fancy as the Velocity Micro first choice, but we’ll enjoy it more. It has a great non-glare coating and other quality features.

So just to warn you, if something should go wrong with your bargain purchase, these days you could end up paying a good hunk of the purchase price all over again just to get it fixed! Read that fine print in the store if you can, or be sure you can return the thing if you find an unsatisfactory warranty in the box when you open it.

Also check on the length of the warranty. Is it three years or one year? If it’s only one year, there may be a reason for the manufacturer’s reluctance to be responsible longer. That Velocity Micro monitor was warranted only for one year.

Good thing we returned it.

Caveat emptor.

Technorati Tags: Hawaii, caveat emptor, LCD Monitor, warrantee

China goes green--bans plastic bags

2008-05-26T20:21:00.001-07:00

by Larry Geller

Only in China could they do this: ban the use of thin plastic bags for shopping starting June 1. Yes, June 1, 2008.

(thanks to Ira Rohter for pointer to this story from the Scientific American website)

China Sacks Plastic Bags

Ban could save 37 million barrels of oil and alleviate "white pollution"

SHANGHAI—Thin plastic bags are used for everything in China and the Chinese use up to three billion of them a day--an environmentally costly habit picked up by shopkeepers and consumers in the late 1980s for convenience over traditional cloth bags. Fruit mongers weigh produce in them, tailors stuff shirts into them, even street food vendors plunk their piping hot wares directly into see-through plastic bags that do nothing to protect one's hands from being burned or coated in hot grease. They even have a special name for the plastic bags found blowing, hanging and floating everywhere from trees to rivers: bai si wu le, or "white pollution," for the bags' most common color.

They seem to understand the problem:

"Too many plastic bags is a great waste of natural resources," retired Communist Party cadre Liu Zhidong says through a translator. "When burnt, they produce poisoning smoke, and if buried underneath the ground they need more than 300 years to be degraded."

And it could work:

Yet, the ban enjoys enthusiastic support from many residents here, particularly students, who may not even recall the more traditional practice of cloth bags or baskets. "I will just carry the things by my hands," one young man told me on the campus of Shanghai International Studies University. "I will never use the plastic bags supplied in supermarkets and I'll ask my friends not to use them, too."

Now, what's wrong with us??

Technorati Tags: Hawaii, China, plastic bags, plastic bag ban

Beware of short warranties

2008-04-08T14:25:00.001-07:00

by Larry Geller

Last week I tried to read some data from a 1 GB PNY USB memory stick that I had stored away a couple of months ago. It wouldn't read. The drive is in some kind of "unknown" format according to several computers I plugged it in to.

Nor could I reformat the drive. It's just dead. Fortunately, the data lost was not important, I have it elsewhere. But imagine if I were counting on having that data? Imagine if I had used that USB flash drive as critical backup?

Checking, I bought it in 2006 and it had a one-year warranty. I used it once, to write that data, then put it away. Today I chucked it into the trash. Money down the drain, but at least no painful data loss.

It used to be that large appliances came with a three-year warranty. Now it's one year. Guess what—there's a reason that manufacturers won't stand by their products as long as they used to. The reason is that many products are crap. They won't last.

With regard to computer shop "bargains" or sales on the web, I suggest checking into the manufacturer's warranty before ordering. I've owned a 250 Mb hard disk that I used for local backup, purchased originally on sale at CompUSA. It had a one-year warranty and expired a month after its warranty ran out. I now am wiser and won't do that again.

When you see a bargain, you can often discover problems with Google's help. Put the word "review" ahead of the item name and part number and see if you can find other users' experience documented on the web. It works for computer peripherals, for digital cameras, for most anything that has been around a while.

Very often a web source like Amazon will find itself with a stock of lemons on hand. The only way they can make lemonade is to push the product out quickly at a low price and make their problem into our problem. Don't fall for it. Check first.

You can get disk drives with three-year warranties and good reviews. Some USB flash drives have lifetime warranties. Wouldn't they be a better investment over the long run?

There are other PNY drives in my drawer. Each is now a potential little time bomb, waiting to nail me if I depend on it.

Technorati Tags: Warranty, warranties, PNY, memory stick, USB flash memory

Wal-Mart's ugly face

2008-03-29T01:27:00.001-07:00

by Larry Geller

This is spreading like wildfire all over the web, thanks to the efforts of Keith Olbermann on MSNBC and bloggers who are carrying stories and videos. It was the most emailed story on CNN.com.

In a nutshell, Debbie Shank, a 52-year-old mother of three, suffered severe brain damage in a traffic accident. She won a $417,000 settlement, which the family set aside in a trust for her future medical expenses. Wal-Mart sued the family for $470,000 to reimburse the company for every cent it had paid for Debbie's medical bills because of a clause in her medical insurance contract, and they won.

Wal-Mart, with billions in profits, did not need to sue the Shank family, but they did. The family doesn't know how they can ever pay Wal-Mart and provide for Debbie's needs. To top it off, Debbie's son was killed in Iraq. Although she attended his funeral, she asks about him every day, weeps when she hears the news.

There must be a special place in hell for company executives who would do this.

For the complete, ugly story, check out this article on Huffington Post by David Nassar, Will Wal-Mart Do the Right Thing for Brain-Damaged Ex-Employee Debbie Shank's Family?

More is at Wal-Mart Watch. If you click the top image in this article it will take you to a Wal-Mart Watch article which has information on a petition, a Shank family donation page, and other articles (including Big Box, Small Heart, a great title).

Keith Olbermann takes on Wal-Mart

Keith Olbermann says he going to feature Wal-Mart's CEO on his World's Worst segment every night until Wal-Mart caves.

It's a new kind of activism. In addition to supporting Deborah Shank, we should also express our thanks to Olbermann for his unique approach to pounding some humanity through the thick, greedy skulls of Wal-Mart's management. Here are some emails that may work (if they haven't been turned off by the time you try them):

viewerservices@msnbc.com
letters@msnbc.com
countdown@msnbc.com
KOlbermann@msnbc.com

And the first two Worst segments:

YouTube - Olbermann - Wal-Mart and Deborah Shank

YouTube - KEITH OLBERMANN THREATENS WALMART! *WE'LL DO THIS EVERYDAY!*

If you have a blog, please consider posting something to keep the pressure on Wal-Mart.

And of course, if you still shop there, why not consider whether you still want to support a company that would do this.

Technorati Tags: Wal-Mart, Olbermann

Lucky you live Hawaii: Beat the clock with Wootalyzer

2008-03-18T20:30:00.001-07:00

Internet bargain hunters all know about the Wootalyzer. Or so it seems. This little pop-up program lurks in your notification tray (lower right, next to the taskbar) and monitors a number of one-day sale sites. When something new comes up, it shows a little information about it (you set how long the box stays, and if there is sound or not). If you're interested, or if you want to check all the sites, you can pop up the program and check them out.

On the Mainland, it seems that everyone knows about this, because it's hard to score one of the items before they sell out. New items are posted at midnight on some of the sites, so if you want one, you have to get up early. Or move to Hawaii, where they show up at a reasonable time in the early evening.

Problem is, many of the sites won't ship to Hawaii or shipping makes too big a dent in the bargain price. If you want it enough, you can have them send it to you via Ship to Hawaii, a consolidating service. Check the Ship to Hawaii website for how this works.

If you install this neat little program, you may want to take out the wine sites since shipping wine to Hawaii is not allowed apparently.

Also a caveat: these sites often carry what amounts to junk, stuff that is cheap because it doesn't work well for some reason. For example, Monday you could have grabbed a Sandisk Sansa e260 4GB Media Player real cheap. The description might have sold you, but checking user reviews elsewhere might warn you off. It seems that the device has some kind of noise at low volume levels, according to reports. You have to do the research yourself.

Fortunately, there's time for you to do it. With most people asleep on the Mainland, you'll still be able to score an item if you want to buy it.

Nordstrom's a welcome newcomer to Honolulu

2008-03-17T02:51:00.001-07:00

by Larry Geller

We thought it would be safe to take the plunge and check out the latest malihini in Ala Moana. Yup, Nordstrom looks pretty much like it's just off the plane from Seattle. All dressed up, great customer service, impeccable style, prices from affordable to take your breath away.

The mannequins are gorgeous. Nothing in the store is less than perfectly done. Imagine: sales personnel who will seek you out, bring you things, explain them, and help you choose. After spending an hour in Nordstrom it's just impossible to go back to Macy's. Ever.

We did pay some extra attention to the shoes. And so have they.

Yes, the price tag on the bottom of that Ferragamo men's shoe is $1,650.00. The thought came crashing into my mind, "that's very expensive for a shoe!" but of course you get two, so it's not so bad.

They also had several styles in the more affordable $590.00 a pair price range.

Nor are the kiddies left out. For your fashion-conscious toddler, here is an attractive little number with Velcro straps for only $194.95. Figure she'll be able to wear them for two-three months before she outgrows them. A cheaper style had the red Prada label only on the inside. How will the other kids know? Forget that cheap one. This is the obvious choice.

To be sure your little tyke will be a standout among the beach crowd, there are several colors of plastic kiddie slippas displayed for $75 a pair.

Think of it this way. When someone buys that Ferragamo shoe, it helps pay the salary of the salesperson helping you choose that t-shirt.

Speaking of t-shirts, as with shoes, they have prices all over the map. In lieu of visiting the store, there's plenty to gasp at on the Nordstrom's website. Including these, $229 and $215 respectively.

For polo shirts and similar, Land's End may have better value and even quality. We poked and felt the material and gawked at the prices. No, not the $229 t-shirts, just the ones I might possibly buy.

Obviously we'll need another trip to seek out what's affordable. I'll stop turning over shoes that I like to check the price. Instead, perhaps I'll just ask the friendly sales person to let me know what's available in my price range. When he stops laughing, of course.

2008-01-18T14:07:00.000-08:00

by Larry Geller

For all you Costco members or those not yet members, the Honolulu Advertiser is offering a free membership, kind of.

The other day I was shopping at Costco and noticed a big card with a 50% off Advertiser subscription. That's a mind blower. I recently renewed my sub for $209 for a year. Indeed, the Costco deal comes to only $100 for a year.

That's like putting $100 in your pocket. No small change!

I called the Advertiser to find out if I receive a refund for my unused paid subscription, and the answer is "yes." So I bought two Costco cards. And canceled my current sub, asking for a refund. Then I faxed in the new coupon. And my paper is still coming.

Several thoughts on this:

I have subscribed to the Advertiser for years and years. I resent that they are charging me double the rate they are offering to others. Where's the deal for loyal subscribers?

If someone is not a Costco member but thinking about it, and you're an Advertiser subscriber, here's your chance to get a couple of year's free Costco membership, if you'd like to think of it that way. You could join Costco and reduce your newspaper costs enough to pay for it, then enjoy the Costco membership for all the other good deals they offer.

Idle thought on profits. Do ads pay for the paper? What proportion? Obviously they are willing to forgo half the ordinary subscription price pretty easily.

Switching now to the Star-Bulletin. I'm glad there are two papers in Honolulu. Often enough, despite its smaller operation, the Star-Bulletin beats out the Advertiser on quality of reporting. Check the difference in the coverage of yesterday's tragic killing of a 2-year-old. I very much appreciated the S-B's story over the Advertiser's. Just my opinion, of course. That's just an example that was readily at hand. I can do without the S-B's right-wing diatribes, though, and their trick of putting conservative comics on the funnies page. So I won't subscribe. They telemarketed me for a $40 annual subscription last week and I said "no thanks."

But who needs to subscribe to the Star-Bulletin? They're giving it away free on buses and in Subway stores. I heard that some people got a free sub offer included in their phone bills (unverified). The S-B press run is limited, and my understanding is that they run the max even if it means giving the paper away. Yet they go on. A mystery, but again, I'm glad they are still here.

Ok, shifting to on-line. Gannett (Advertiser) obviously has the resources to move into a strong web presence, and they have done so. Blogs, reader comments, even steadily improving video coverage can be found on their Internet pages. It seems to be still a work in progress but I think they will do a good job of it. And supposedly, the on-line ad revenue will pay for all that. Internet advertising is growing while print stagnates.

There's a dirty little secret though, that all on-line newspapers have to contend with. Users are adopting ad-blocking software. It's getting darn easy to eliminate most ads. I don't see many ads at all when I surf the web. Less geeky folk can still eliminate a large number with browser add-ins or ad blocking features of many firewall or antivirus programs, or with specific ad-blocking software.

No doubt there will be a software war, with websites working to produce ads that can't be blocked, and ad-block software vendors working to block them. The New York Times Reader is an excellent bit of software and its ads can't be blocked (to my knowledge), but they charge money to use it. Perhaps other papers will offer similar software. Sites running videos include "commercials" in the videos, and those get through.

For those of us using browsers, though, we have options. Newspapers hoping to substitute on-line ad revenue for print ad revenue will have to deal with it.

Advertisers know about ad-blocking software, of course, and they also know that relatively few users are using it. As the software becomes more popular, though, there may be a falling out.

Is it cheating to block ads? I say no. It's not much different from scooping out all the ads tucked into your Sunday paper and chucking them into the garbage bag. That's pretty much what I do. It's my Constitutional right to throw away the ads. And I'll do the same on the Web, thank you.

Meanwhile, enjoy your Costco/Advertiser savings.

Technorati Tags: Newspapers, on-line advertising, ad-block, ad-blocking software

Disappeared streets--TomTom GPS not too useful in Hawaii

2007-12-23T15:42:00.000-08:00

by Larry Geller

Or parts of New Jersey, either.

Hawaii has addresses that look like 94-nnn Kamehameha Highway. New Jersey has some also. In fact, there are so many of these addresses here that they might be in the majority.

So what's the problem? The problem is that one of the best-selling GPS navigation brands, TomTom, does not have a hyphen on their keyboard. That's right, no way to enter most Hawaii addresses.

The TomTom One is a best-seller and a top choice of Consumer Reports. It works fine if you want to go somewhere on King Street, or to an address in Hilo, for example. Heck, I don't need an expensive GPS unit to find those. If I want to visit an office in Kaneohe, though, I can't enter the address.

Believe it or not.

This brand is widely advertised in Sunday ads. It gets good reviews from on-line sites. I scored a TomTom GO920 at a reasonable price the day after Thanksgiving. It was the only one Office Depot had at that store, and I got it! Yay! Now I know why. It worked fine, except of course when it's needed most.

TomTom customer service is as useless as the unit was. After a phone call and an email, they advised us to fax the main office. So I did. Nothing. A second fax. Nothing.

After about a week I had an idea, I'll fax their headquarters in the Netherlands. I'll also tell them that faxing their USA office did not good. They should know about that. This did bring a reply in a couple of days. But no good news.

I'm supposed to subscribe to their newsletter to find out when the fix is in. They won't even drop me an email.

So back it went, reluctantly. I don't know if I'll find as good a bargain any time soon. The other brands (Garvin and Magellan, anyway) have no problem with Hawaii addresses, but their voice quality wasn't as good.

We just liked the TomTom and can't believe that it has this problem.

So be warned. They are still advertised everywhere. Try one before you buy it. If you just need to navigate on center-city streets, you'll be ok. If you want to get out of town, though, see if the TomTom will actually take you there.

Good thing I didn't buy one from CompUSA which has a no-return policy.

Technorati Tags: Hawaii, GPS, TomTom, lousy customer service

Watch out for fake bargains at CompUSA liquidation

2007-12-15T00:17:00.000-08:00

by Larry Geller

It's not CompUSA anymore. They won't even take CompUSA credit cards. The liquidators bought it, and they will do their thing to make the most money at customer expense. They are experts and have ways to part customers from their money, so buyer beware.

I went over there Thursday evening. Some shelves were already bare. I had my eye on a HP laptop which has been advertised each week for $999.99. The laptop was indeed on sale, but for $130 more, after discount ($1129). There were USB memory sticks on sale for more than you can get them elsewhere.

I was interested in a webcam I wouldn't have bought unless it was cheap, but it had no marked price. So I went over to one of the computers on display, visited the manufacturer's website, and looked it up. List price was $79. You can take items over to what used to be the business center desk and they will scan the barcode and tell you the price. So I did that, and it was, after discount, $79. So no deal, since it's easy to find it cheaper on the web.

Liquidators know that many people will go for the discounts they are offering without checking the street price. Some buyers see "20% off" and figure they are getting a deal. If the base price was kited up, then it isn't a deal, is it?

Liquidators also move stock around. It's reasonable to expect that crap they have on hand can be moved to the stores they are currently closing. Perhaps there will be less of that in Hawaii simply because of the higher shipping cost, but it's still something to watch out for.

Also, be sure you know what each item should cost and make sure that the register price is what you thought it should be. They make that difficult by ringing up the full price, then when all items have been checked in, they apply the discounts. It is all supposed to work out, and the receipt shows the reduced price. But it's confusing if you're standing there wondering if the discount is what you thought it would be.

If the manufacturer has any rebates, you'll have to find out about them elsewhere. I didn't see any rebate action at all.

Typically, the discount will increase as time goes on. Also typically, the good stuff will be gone.

So I suggest knowing what an item should cost before you buy, and make sure you get the discount you expect. You mean nothing to them as a future customer, they just want your money now, and as much of it as they can get.