I noted yesterday that the topic of EPA expansion on regulating took another step or two. Apparently, there's some effort for the EPA to have regulating ability over washes (as you have in Arizona), roadside ditches, and drainage ditches. We aren't talking on federal property....it's meant for all of the US, period.
So you'd sit there....as a typical Bama guy would....trying to imagine some department in the EPA....governing ditches in Bama. The commissioner of ditches? Yeah, it'd be a paid job, with a hottie secretary, forty scientists studying ditches, and probably a thousand administrative guys properly monitoring ditches throughout America.
You'd go once a year to Tallahasse, Florida to attend the ditch-association meeting.....charming environmentalists on ditch knowledge and regulation. There would be ditch lobbyists there to hand out golf carts, special gifts, and fancy swanky evenings with hired lobbyist-hookers.
The scientists in charge of reviewing ditches in America? Well....they'd come from upscale university programs at Harvard, Yale, and UCLA. Naturally.....they'd admit they'd never really seen a real ditch in their life, or pulled a truck out from one, or seen a bunch of copperhead snakes in a typical southern Alabama ditch.
The dry wash commissioner? Well....there's not much to say or do....for ten months out of the year. Usually in July and August....dry washes become a hot activity, with monsoon storms arriving and flooding areas with the dry washes. So you'd have plenty of time to talk politics in DC, swap bar-b-q recipes, talk with trampy Baltimore women, and sip straight rum in the afternoons at the office while watching baseball games.
Fifty years ago....if you had suggested that some government agency would eventually want to take over your ditch business in rural America....folks would have laughed you out of the room. Today? It's not a joke.
There are four million miles of roads in America...more or less. So you can figure at least five to eight million miles of ditches in America. You'd have to hire a bunch of college kids and do a large database.....to show various grades of ditches. Yeah, it's a full-time job for some unemployed college kids....just to count ditches.
Permission to place a ditch, or perhaps do maintenance on a ditch? Coming from Washington DC? Is that really necessary?
You can imagine some type of accreditation coming out of this....meaning you have to be an official ditch-digger, with some type of degree or background.....to even dig a ditch. Just showing up with a shovel and pick....won't cut it. You'd have to be special....to dig a ditch.
Only in America.
Wednesday, 16 July 2014
Sunday, 13 July 2014
Day of Reckoning for the IRS Chief
The judge handling the IRS episode over the Tea Party stuff....gave an odd directive to the head of the IRS last week. He wants the head guy to come back next week, and give testimony.....under oath. The media has barely covered this order, and no one really says much over it. Having worked around the US government.....I can state that this oath business probably changes a ton of things over a short period of time.
What will happen here? As the order was given for testimony under oath.....the head guy starts to sweat a bit. Number one....rarely do any of these people hired for such a lofty position....have any understanding of IT work or situations. They hire people to handle IT requirements. So, just asking one stupid and routine question....means a answer under oath, and the head guy probably can't do an adequate job.
Number two.....once he realizes the impact of the order...the head guy goes back to the division and orders a big meeting with all the players, and the lawyers of the agency. The lawyers want the players, and people with info.....to now provide written and signed statements to the head guy. These statements need to reflect the "truth" but also blend into the statements of their associates.
Number three....as you can imagine....these lesser figures now start to sweat because no one ever made them write statements and sign them before. So, that night....they call their lawyer (the $150 an hour local guy). He admits that he's not up on this kind of stuff, but knows a DC lawyer who is (the $300 an hour DC guy). This DC lawyer gives a two hour phone chat to this guy and his local lawyer. The key thing? Don't sign nothing unless you feel comfortable, and it's the truth.
Number four....as the hours pass and the deadline to come back into court starts to get close....the head guy now finds several folks willing to only state a couple of facts and limit their knowledge admitted. The head guy tries to comfort his folks.....they are protected by the lawyers of the agency. No one believes this now.
Number five....over the twenty-four hours before the next judge-to-IRS chief-meeting, there's high tension at the agency. Some folks are thinking of leaving the agency as soon as possible. Some folks have given up doing real work and worried about protecting themselves. The agency lawyers are pulling eighteen hour days....but can only charge eight to ten hours on their time-card. There's some feelings about a US marshall team possibly arriving and conducting a search of their records. So the lawyers are likely cleaning their files as time goes by....to ensure they don't have conflicting evidence or emails in their possession.
My humble guess is that the IRS chief will ask for a delay of ten days once we get to X-day. The judge will have a choice of cooperating or demanding they show up. Hard to say what happens in this case.
If you could find a network covering this and giving minute-by-minute coverage....it'd be kinda interesting to watch. My guess is that no network will cover it, period. Maybe a one-minute update at the end of the day....but nothing much else.
What will happen here? As the order was given for testimony under oath.....the head guy starts to sweat a bit. Number one....rarely do any of these people hired for such a lofty position....have any understanding of IT work or situations. They hire people to handle IT requirements. So, just asking one stupid and routine question....means a answer under oath, and the head guy probably can't do an adequate job.
Number two.....once he realizes the impact of the order...the head guy goes back to the division and orders a big meeting with all the players, and the lawyers of the agency. The lawyers want the players, and people with info.....to now provide written and signed statements to the head guy. These statements need to reflect the "truth" but also blend into the statements of their associates.
Number three....as you can imagine....these lesser figures now start to sweat because no one ever made them write statements and sign them before. So, that night....they call their lawyer (the $150 an hour local guy). He admits that he's not up on this kind of stuff, but knows a DC lawyer who is (the $300 an hour DC guy). This DC lawyer gives a two hour phone chat to this guy and his local lawyer. The key thing? Don't sign nothing unless you feel comfortable, and it's the truth.
Number four....as the hours pass and the deadline to come back into court starts to get close....the head guy now finds several folks willing to only state a couple of facts and limit their knowledge admitted. The head guy tries to comfort his folks.....they are protected by the lawyers of the agency. No one believes this now.
Number five....over the twenty-four hours before the next judge-to-IRS chief-meeting, there's high tension at the agency. Some folks are thinking of leaving the agency as soon as possible. Some folks have given up doing real work and worried about protecting themselves. The agency lawyers are pulling eighteen hour days....but can only charge eight to ten hours on their time-card. There's some feelings about a US marshall team possibly arriving and conducting a search of their records. So the lawyers are likely cleaning their files as time goes by....to ensure they don't have conflicting evidence or emails in their possession.
My humble guess is that the IRS chief will ask for a delay of ten days once we get to X-day. The judge will have a choice of cooperating or demanding they show up. Hard to say what happens in this case.
If you could find a network covering this and giving minute-by-minute coverage....it'd be kinda interesting to watch. My guess is that no network will cover it, period. Maybe a one-minute update at the end of the day....but nothing much else.
Saturday, 12 July 2014
The Question of Scandal
For a number of weeks, I've been trying to grasp and understand how the news media grades and invokes "scandal". Some networks and news organization say X is scandal but Y is not scandal.
If you grow up in Bama....you generally know scandal. There's roughly ten versions.
1. The local Baptist minister is caught with three choir ladies....which none of them knew that the other two were involved.
2. The local water department clerk is finally audited after fifteen years of employment, and is noted to having stolen over $100,000 through the years. All of the money is gone....primarily due to her gambling habit at the casino over in Mississippi..
3. The local mayor and city council are discovered to have hired up relatives for various town maintenance jobs....of which none of them ever work more than twenty hours of week for a full-up pay-check.
4. A city council pair of dimwits rig up a property swap, where some guy gets a $150,000-valued piece of land in exchange for a $10,000-valued piece of land that the city owns.
5. The local high school agriculture instructor is caught buying state property at some state auction, in the name of the school and then turns around to sell the former state property at the normal price....walking away with $5k in profits in his pocket.
6. Two deacons from the local church use church funds to travel off to a deacons conference in Plano, Texas.....but later are discovered to have stayed at some fancy resort in Dallas, and pay for strippers with the church credit card.
7. The local doctor is arrested and charged with Medicare fraud for asking for blood tests for every single patient they see. The extra profits made from this gimmick? They pay for a Bahamas property they bought and intend to retire to within ten years.
8. The local bank loan officer is discovered signing loan papers for her lover....over and over and over.
9. The minister's wife runs off to Oklahoma City with a local farm implement salesman.
10. The police chief from town is found undressed in his squad car with two Memphis transexual lady-guys who just happened to stop in the middle of Alabama on a warm July evening.
The thing is....most folks know what is scandal and what is not. A news reporter can pretend he knows better....but it just doesn't work well. People tend to ask stupid questions....why this happened, where the trail of money went, and how someone fell from the lofty position they held.
Sometimes, you feel sorry for the scandal folks. You'd like to help them somehow.....maybe send up a prayer, or just look the other way on something. You'd like for the scandal to just go away, or get fixed by some judge in a hurry.
The fact is.....we pretty much know scandals so well.....because we've seen them so often. A typical Bama guy will swore that he sees an average of one scandal every ten days. Sometimes with his neighbor....sometimes with a church member....sometimes with a relative....sometimes with a former school buddy....sometimes even with a hunting partner. It's life, in a difficult way. And it's not exactly pretty.
Entertaining? Well....yeah. It does beat talking up weather, GM brake pads, bad mowers we've bought at Wal-Mart, loose women we know from the flea market, and swanky gals who shop along side of us at Piggly Wiggly.
The truth is....we enjoy scandal, and probably rank it higher than NCAA football. Well....up until the bowl games anyway.
If you grow up in Bama....you generally know scandal. There's roughly ten versions.
1. The local Baptist minister is caught with three choir ladies....which none of them knew that the other two were involved.
2. The local water department clerk is finally audited after fifteen years of employment, and is noted to having stolen over $100,000 through the years. All of the money is gone....primarily due to her gambling habit at the casino over in Mississippi..
3. The local mayor and city council are discovered to have hired up relatives for various town maintenance jobs....of which none of them ever work more than twenty hours of week for a full-up pay-check.
4. A city council pair of dimwits rig up a property swap, where some guy gets a $150,000-valued piece of land in exchange for a $10,000-valued piece of land that the city owns.
5. The local high school agriculture instructor is caught buying state property at some state auction, in the name of the school and then turns around to sell the former state property at the normal price....walking away with $5k in profits in his pocket.
6. Two deacons from the local church use church funds to travel off to a deacons conference in Plano, Texas.....but later are discovered to have stayed at some fancy resort in Dallas, and pay for strippers with the church credit card.
7. The local doctor is arrested and charged with Medicare fraud for asking for blood tests for every single patient they see. The extra profits made from this gimmick? They pay for a Bahamas property they bought and intend to retire to within ten years.
8. The local bank loan officer is discovered signing loan papers for her lover....over and over and over.
9. The minister's wife runs off to Oklahoma City with a local farm implement salesman.
10. The police chief from town is found undressed in his squad car with two Memphis transexual lady-guys who just happened to stop in the middle of Alabama on a warm July evening.
The thing is....most folks know what is scandal and what is not. A news reporter can pretend he knows better....but it just doesn't work well. People tend to ask stupid questions....why this happened, where the trail of money went, and how someone fell from the lofty position they held.
Sometimes, you feel sorry for the scandal folks. You'd like to help them somehow.....maybe send up a prayer, or just look the other way on something. You'd like for the scandal to just go away, or get fixed by some judge in a hurry.
The fact is.....we pretty much know scandals so well.....because we've seen them so often. A typical Bama guy will swore that he sees an average of one scandal every ten days. Sometimes with his neighbor....sometimes with a church member....sometimes with a relative....sometimes with a former school buddy....sometimes even with a hunting partner. It's life, in a difficult way. And it's not exactly pretty.
Entertaining? Well....yeah. It does beat talking up weather, GM brake pads, bad mowers we've bought at Wal-Mart, loose women we know from the flea market, and swanky gals who shop along side of us at Piggly Wiggly.
The truth is....we enjoy scandal, and probably rank it higher than NCAA football. Well....up until the bowl games anyway.
Friday, 11 July 2014
Weed Nation
We are about to have state number two on the "marijuana-is-approved" list come into reality (Colorado was the first, and Washington state is now the second state).
Some folks with 247 Wall Street sat down and did the analysis on the next group to enter this stage.
The list? Alaska (the vote comes in November and will likely pass), California (likely within two years), Maryland (they will virtually decriminalize it to the extent that it's more serious if you jay-walked than it is buying weed), Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon (likely by the election of 2016), Rhode Island, and Vermont.
What does the trend indicate? No southern states within the foreseeable future. Also, shockingly enough....Michigan wasn't on the next list....while the residents of Detroit would easily vote up such a measure with a twenty-point margin (my humble bet).
In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, I noted that marijuana farmers out of South America have virtually stopped their production cycle....with no one really interested in buying it or transporting into the US. Mostly because there's already plenty of legal marijuana already on the market, and tons more coming from US farming operations.
The DEA guys? They seem to have basically given up on crimes and the legal system surrounding marijuana.
What's left? Taxation on sales of marijuana. On this topic.....someone has to be standing there and calculating the actual sales going on in Colorado, and knows the daily revenue numbers. ABC reported just in the past few days of the first accurate study of sales over the weed....which they figure around 130 metric tons of weed were sold in the past year. Roughly ninety percent went to state residents and the rest for "guests".
The market value currently reflects around $220 an ounce for weed. You can do the math....but it'd come out just over a billion dollars a year for state sales....if the $220 number is accurate (I'd question this myself and think the number is lower).
If you attach a taxation deal to the sales.....and you border Colorado....then you have to wonder about what sales taxation you are missing....if your "buyers" walk over the border to buy their stuff. In the end.....if you figure you lost $200 million on possible taxes....you'd get pretty upset, and start to campaign on getting it approved in your state.
The guys conducting this survey.....kinda limited themselves. They left out a number of questions....either because of time, man-power, or just limits. For example....for these 'guests' of the state....where are they coming from? Texas? Utah? And the age grouping of the buyers? And were they continual repeat buyers?
Whether we like it or not....weed is now a business, and a revenue machine. It'll eventually turn into a taxation device. And we will have to accept the fact that more people smoke weed, than those who don't.
Some folks with 247 Wall Street sat down and did the analysis on the next group to enter this stage.
The list? Alaska (the vote comes in November and will likely pass), California (likely within two years), Maryland (they will virtually decriminalize it to the extent that it's more serious if you jay-walked than it is buying weed), Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon (likely by the election of 2016), Rhode Island, and Vermont.
What does the trend indicate? No southern states within the foreseeable future. Also, shockingly enough....Michigan wasn't on the next list....while the residents of Detroit would easily vote up such a measure with a twenty-point margin (my humble bet).
In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, I noted that marijuana farmers out of South America have virtually stopped their production cycle....with no one really interested in buying it or transporting into the US. Mostly because there's already plenty of legal marijuana already on the market, and tons more coming from US farming operations.
The DEA guys? They seem to have basically given up on crimes and the legal system surrounding marijuana.
What's left? Taxation on sales of marijuana. On this topic.....someone has to be standing there and calculating the actual sales going on in Colorado, and knows the daily revenue numbers. ABC reported just in the past few days of the first accurate study of sales over the weed....which they figure around 130 metric tons of weed were sold in the past year. Roughly ninety percent went to state residents and the rest for "guests".
The market value currently reflects around $220 an ounce for weed. You can do the math....but it'd come out just over a billion dollars a year for state sales....if the $220 number is accurate (I'd question this myself and think the number is lower).
If you attach a taxation deal to the sales.....and you border Colorado....then you have to wonder about what sales taxation you are missing....if your "buyers" walk over the border to buy their stuff. In the end.....if you figure you lost $200 million on possible taxes....you'd get pretty upset, and start to campaign on getting it approved in your state.
The guys conducting this survey.....kinda limited themselves. They left out a number of questions....either because of time, man-power, or just limits. For example....for these 'guests' of the state....where are they coming from? Texas? Utah? And the age grouping of the buyers? And were they continual repeat buyers?
Whether we like it or not....weed is now a business, and a revenue machine. It'll eventually turn into a taxation device. And we will have to accept the fact that more people smoke weed, than those who don't.
Just An Odd Observation
Just an odd observation.....but national data collectors say that between 1.5 and 3 million American teens....walk/run away from home each year and try to disappear. The amount of federal effort put into finding them and correcting the situation? Almost nothing.
300,000 illegal Latino teens entering the US? Well....we would be willing to spend $3 billion to house and handle them. We'd put hundreds of thousands of man-hours into their situation per year.
Yet we won't even look at the 1.5 million American teens.....actual American citizens....and their issue. We won't put them into protective camps on military bases. We won't put them on buses to San Diego. We won't hire lawyers to handle the legal issues involved.
What does it say about our society, our priorities, and our politics?
300,000 illegal Latino teens entering the US? Well....we would be willing to spend $3 billion to house and handle them. We'd put hundreds of thousands of man-hours into their situation per year.
Yet we won't even look at the 1.5 million American teens.....actual American citizens....and their issue. We won't put them into protective camps on military bases. We won't put them on buses to San Diego. We won't hire lawyers to handle the legal issues involved.
What does it say about our society, our priorities, and our politics?
Thursday, 10 July 2014
New ISIS Strategy?
There's been this hint over the past couple of days that this ISIS-crew....the folks taking territory in Iraq and threatening stability there.....might head south and tear apart Mecca, which resides in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis kinda protect Mecca....as the holy spot for Muslims around the world. If you are Islam.....you are supposed to make one trip in your life to Mecca....for religious purposes.
Why would ISIS destroy Mecca and the holy site there? Well....there's this little commentary within the Koran that you aren't supposed to allow structures to overcome the religion itself. When you put up a statue for Islam....it's defying the general rules of the religion. When you put up a $50-million-dollar mosque.....it's defying the general rules of the religion. The ISIS folks are going back to the standard Koran definition of a thousand years ago, and making a stand for old fashioned traditional values.
Mecca? Well.....there's some history here. You see....around 600 AD...Mecca was a big-name trading center in the Middle East. If you were a merchant or bartered stuff.....it was on your top ten places each year to go and deal. You could call it the mega-flea market of the Middle East around this point in time.
Mecca thrived under the free enterprise system and widely known as a open-religious community. You worshipped as you pleased....just don't antagonize folks was the general rule.
The big deal of the year in Mecca? There was a religious fest to celebrate all religions, which centered around this black rock that existed there. Everyone came to trade, barter, and spend money during this festive occasion.
This changed as Muhammad arrived, and eventually threw out the controlling authority of Mecca....then declared that the black rock was only there for his religious group.
What happens when ISIS crosses the border? My scenario for this runs through three basic steps....with the Saudis in absolute shock as their border guard situation evaporates overnight. ISIS would have travel roughly 700 miles (figure one entire day at top speed with no stops or minor battles to limit them).
Mecca, upon hearing they'd cross the border....would likely empty out within four hours....heading either west toward Jordan or east toward the sea. Two million residents in Mecca.....so you can figure the four-lanes leading either way will be clogged and half the folks in town will never have a chance to get out before ISIS arrives.
The curious factor is that if all of the two million residents were armed.....and the ISIS arrival crew (initial stages) would not number over 3,000 in number (my humble guess on the pick-up truck delivery system). Mecca, if they were logical and thinking....could put down the arrival crew in a matter of hours. But these are Saudis, and without their military structure....they just aren't the fighters that you'd want for this case.
The Saudis would now turn to the US, and demand absolute help delivered overnight. The current administration? It'd take at least ten days for them to form an opinion and get the President's approval to proceed....add four days to get troops into place, and by then.....half of Mecca is destroyed and the black rock structure is non-existent. I'd also find that all of the banks in Mecca have been emptied out and billions stolen in the form of bills, gold and silver.
Now, if I were ISIS.....I'd move on westward.....toward Jordan, and Israel.
The odds of going into Saudi Arabia? You turn a pretty negative Iraq episode....into a five-star mess in a matter of a week. Gas prices will go up by twenty percent. CNN will surge into first-place as they cover the development. The President's staff will wake up to discover that they really don't have a plan to fit this, and will want polling data to indicate what the American people suggest....which is mostly to dissolve the Designated Hitter-rule in baseball, get rid of the illegal aliens, and fire Senator Harry Reid. If we produced all the oil we needed from within the US....then none of this would matter.
Yep, things could actually get worse....if you didn't think it was possible.
The Saudis kinda protect Mecca....as the holy spot for Muslims around the world. If you are Islam.....you are supposed to make one trip in your life to Mecca....for religious purposes.
Why would ISIS destroy Mecca and the holy site there? Well....there's this little commentary within the Koran that you aren't supposed to allow structures to overcome the religion itself. When you put up a statue for Islam....it's defying the general rules of the religion. When you put up a $50-million-dollar mosque.....it's defying the general rules of the religion. The ISIS folks are going back to the standard Koran definition of a thousand years ago, and making a stand for old fashioned traditional values.
Mecca? Well.....there's some history here. You see....around 600 AD...Mecca was a big-name trading center in the Middle East. If you were a merchant or bartered stuff.....it was on your top ten places each year to go and deal. You could call it the mega-flea market of the Middle East around this point in time.
Mecca thrived under the free enterprise system and widely known as a open-religious community. You worshipped as you pleased....just don't antagonize folks was the general rule.
The big deal of the year in Mecca? There was a religious fest to celebrate all religions, which centered around this black rock that existed there. Everyone came to trade, barter, and spend money during this festive occasion.
This changed as Muhammad arrived, and eventually threw out the controlling authority of Mecca....then declared that the black rock was only there for his religious group.
What happens when ISIS crosses the border? My scenario for this runs through three basic steps....with the Saudis in absolute shock as their border guard situation evaporates overnight. ISIS would have travel roughly 700 miles (figure one entire day at top speed with no stops or minor battles to limit them).
Mecca, upon hearing they'd cross the border....would likely empty out within four hours....heading either west toward Jordan or east toward the sea. Two million residents in Mecca.....so you can figure the four-lanes leading either way will be clogged and half the folks in town will never have a chance to get out before ISIS arrives.
The curious factor is that if all of the two million residents were armed.....and the ISIS arrival crew (initial stages) would not number over 3,000 in number (my humble guess on the pick-up truck delivery system). Mecca, if they were logical and thinking....could put down the arrival crew in a matter of hours. But these are Saudis, and without their military structure....they just aren't the fighters that you'd want for this case.
The Saudis would now turn to the US, and demand absolute help delivered overnight. The current administration? It'd take at least ten days for them to form an opinion and get the President's approval to proceed....add four days to get troops into place, and by then.....half of Mecca is destroyed and the black rock structure is non-existent. I'd also find that all of the banks in Mecca have been emptied out and billions stolen in the form of bills, gold and silver.
Now, if I were ISIS.....I'd move on westward.....toward Jordan, and Israel.
The odds of going into Saudi Arabia? You turn a pretty negative Iraq episode....into a five-star mess in a matter of a week. Gas prices will go up by twenty percent. CNN will surge into first-place as they cover the development. The President's staff will wake up to discover that they really don't have a plan to fit this, and will want polling data to indicate what the American people suggest....which is mostly to dissolve the Designated Hitter-rule in baseball, get rid of the illegal aliens, and fire Senator Harry Reid. If we produced all the oil we needed from within the US....then none of this would matter.
Yep, things could actually get worse....if you didn't think it was possible.
Wal-Mart Beverage Shops?
I read a lot of business news....and yesterday, there was a five-star bombshell piece quietly hidden in the Wall Street Journal. A brief two-line piece....which described Wal-Mart's new strategy of getting into alcohol sales, doubling their stake in this one area, and possibly opening stand-alone beverage shops (beer, wine, and booze).
It's not the Wal-Mart concept that we grow up with in the 1980s, and it probably won't work in some conservative southern regions.
Wal-Mart operates with a simple concept. You brew beer.....you want to sell based on a profit margin for your product. More is better....in most cases. So, Wal-Mart steps into the room and says that price per pallet isn't good enough. So you as the beer guy....hint that if they'd buy thirty-percent more on quantity, you'd ease on the pricing of the pallet by ten-percent. Eventually, you reach some agreement on a fantastic amount of beer that they will buy.....but it means less profit than you'd normally accept. Bulk-sales....in effect.
Everyone from hair shampoo manufacturers to shoe polish dealers.....hate Wal-Mart's bulk pricing strategy. You sell to get a big step up.....take large orders.....and then rely on making up the margin by dealing with Piggly Wiggly, K-Mart, Target, and the others....with regular pricing.
How would a Wal-Mart beverage shop (standing alone) operate? I'm guessing it'd be 2,000 square feet.....bundled into a industrial neighborhood of some city....hoping on sales as folks get off work and want to pick up two cases of beer, and six bottles of wine for the weekend. There would likely be eight full-time employees, and six people coming in to stock the shelves daily as a part-timer. Somewhere near the front would be chips and dip....maybe some charcoal for grilling....and maybe every spring there would be an assortment of grills lined up for sale.
Wal-Mart's target? All of the small convenience beverage shops that exist in most towns and cities. You see....they can't get the special discount prices. I'd take a guess that a southern town of forty thousand residents....will typically have eight convenience beverage shops spread out within the urban boundary. With just one Wal-Mart beverage shop.....it'd probably wipe out three of the no-name shops within three years. Put one on the west end of town and one on the east end of town? You'd probably wipe out seven of the eight no-name shops within five years.
The end of an era? Maybe.
It's not the Wal-Mart concept that we grow up with in the 1980s, and it probably won't work in some conservative southern regions.
Wal-Mart operates with a simple concept. You brew beer.....you want to sell based on a profit margin for your product. More is better....in most cases. So, Wal-Mart steps into the room and says that price per pallet isn't good enough. So you as the beer guy....hint that if they'd buy thirty-percent more on quantity, you'd ease on the pricing of the pallet by ten-percent. Eventually, you reach some agreement on a fantastic amount of beer that they will buy.....but it means less profit than you'd normally accept. Bulk-sales....in effect.
Everyone from hair shampoo manufacturers to shoe polish dealers.....hate Wal-Mart's bulk pricing strategy. You sell to get a big step up.....take large orders.....and then rely on making up the margin by dealing with Piggly Wiggly, K-Mart, Target, and the others....with regular pricing.
How would a Wal-Mart beverage shop (standing alone) operate? I'm guessing it'd be 2,000 square feet.....bundled into a industrial neighborhood of some city....hoping on sales as folks get off work and want to pick up two cases of beer, and six bottles of wine for the weekend. There would likely be eight full-time employees, and six people coming in to stock the shelves daily as a part-timer. Somewhere near the front would be chips and dip....maybe some charcoal for grilling....and maybe every spring there would be an assortment of grills lined up for sale.
Wal-Mart's target? All of the small convenience beverage shops that exist in most towns and cities. You see....they can't get the special discount prices. I'd take a guess that a southern town of forty thousand residents....will typically have eight convenience beverage shops spread out within the urban boundary. With just one Wal-Mart beverage shop.....it'd probably wipe out three of the no-name shops within three years. Put one on the west end of town and one on the east end of town? You'd probably wipe out seven of the eight no-name shops within five years.
The end of an era? Maybe.
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