The I Miss the Old Days Complaint Thread
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From what I've seen driving around the USA during the last 20+ years were large "Outlet Malls" where one could find a collection of small stores implying cheaper offerings of name brand products in a store managed and/or owned by the manufacturers themselves. i.e. in the "outlet mall" would be several small stores from companies like "Nike", "Adidas", "Corning", etc. selling their company's wares directly to the public (or at least cutting out some of the middlemen). Often there would be a store that actually manufactured the product somewhere near that area. I particularly remember a big one near Atlanta off of I-75. I stopped paying attention to them after stopping a few times and being disappointed with the prices.
These days, it seems that the concept of an "Outlet Mall" has sort of devolved into large "Overstock" stores with a mixture of company brands, and again implying cheaper prices but all in one display area, no individual stores for each manufacturer.
Life was so much easier when we huddled around the pot-bellied stove and browsed the Sears & Roebuck catalog for entertainment. Amazon, just ain't the same, no emergency TP for the outhouse.
For some strange reason, the teenaged boys liked to take the printed mail order cataloques with them to the toilet. Is that why so many phones find their way in to the dip?
You're welcome.
I see, "Surplus Store" makes sense... we have a kind of store called "outlets" too... but they aren't anything like surplus anymore... they are usually in the form of an outdoor mall...
The origin of "outlets" were in "factory stores", usually for clothing... so a coat maker might set up a store attached to the factory and sell overstock or unpopular items at a big discount... but that mostly died away by the 80s because America pretty much stopped making clothing domestically and the only kind of outlet stores left were usually for tools, attached to factory authorized repair centers like Sears or DeWalt/Black&Decker... the were famous for selling rebuilt tools for at least half the price, plus with a longer warranty than the item originally had... Almost every power tool I had in my teens and twenties was from that type of store.
Eventually, outlets morphed into "outlet centers" usually a small cluster of stores somewhere where rent or real estate was cheap... that morphed into the outlet malls...
The outdoor mall format is generally almost like a little village of strip mall stores, some of them are vast... I went to one in Indiana once that had a bunch of hotels on the outskirts of the complex because so many people would come to shop there for the bargains... that one was set up more like a traditional mall though.
Back in 98' at that mall I got an extreme weather Helly Hanson windbreaker type boating jacket (from an actual Helly Hanson outlet store) that went for around $400 for the low, low, low bargain price of $25... I never found out why it was $25, there was nothing obviously wrong with it*... but it was a one off item (miraculously it fit me) as was practically everything in the store, which was typical for those kind of stores at the time.
Back then basically everything was a "clearance" item (getting rid of an old item), a discontinued product, "irregular" (a slight flaw), and depending on what kind of store (usually electronics or tools), "refurbished" (rebuilt or repaired) or something that was returned, but in good shape.
That setup made those outlet stores worth traveling to because they offered such huge bargains if you could find something you wanted... it was a crap shoot though... but most people came away satisfied to some extent and you'd often hear someone tell of some amazing bargain they got (like I just did), which over time boosted the popularity and fame of these places... but just like with the other stores, that core principle of what an outlet was faded into a gimmick designed to ride the concept of the "outlet" idea...
Companies started to build these outlet centers and fill the stores with limited "bargains" that are mostly low end merchandise made especially for the "outlet" stores... often when you go to these places you'll see a famous brand I just made up, Tommy Pigfinger™ selling jackets or hoodies that look virtually identical to the ones you see in department stores or regular Tommy Pigfinger™ stores elsewhere... but if you compare one from the Tommy Pigfinger™ outlet with one from the regular Tommy Pigfinger™ store, you'll instantly see a difference in quality... usually lighter or lower quality material, weaker stitching or just overall a lower quality design... with most stores as much as 85% or more of their outlet stock is was manufactured exclusively for the outlet store... and the rest of the merchandise is usually the exact same stuff sold at the regular stores selling for about the same price as anywhere else.
A couple of years back there was actually a push to require the stores to make the practices more transparent or to conform to certain standards to be allowed to use the term "outlet" store because the tactics being employed were "borderline deceptive business practices" (not my wording, but actual lawmakers said that)... but as far as I can see or find, nothing much came from that and everything is still the same... as far as I know the closest thing to doing anything about it was an Federal Trade Commission publication "FTC Advice: How to Shop Wisely at Outlet Malls."... which is great if one peruses federal publications frequently*...
But it's no wonder interest in correcting any such issues fizzled... outlets centers have become big business, attracting shoppers from far off locations for "shopping vacations" and many locations are often built up as tourist destinations with hotels, restaurants and tour services operating as satellites around these places... A little ways east of me in what used to be the quaint historic, but fairly unknown fishing/farming town of Riverhead, which was located just far enough away from the famous Twin Forks retreat of the Hamptons to be obscure.
The Riverhead outlet mall opened about twenty plus years ago... it's now three times its original size and there are at least a dozen hotels operating that mostly deal with shoppers... there are several tour operators that bring shoppers from NYC (about 75 miles/120 kilometers), there are also tour groups that run excursions for foreigners visiting the country, and high end limousine services that will take a small group of people from Manhattan the 80 miles to Riverhead in style and luxury... plus they often tag on to that a visit to the local vineyards** for wine tasting tours... not to mention that there is a nearby crappy water park that was dying that now has found new life in the summer visitors, likewise with a ridiculously tiny auto raceway... generally that kind of setup doesn't ever really generate a lot of interest in the local interests to change things...
But yeah... sorry for the essay on the history and operation of Outlet Malls... it's more of a lament on my part... it used to be that if you were willing to do a little searching around you could actually save a significant amount of money... when I was much younger, I was pretty poor (actually ruggedly handsomely poor)...(but thats just my opinion)... All I shopped at were surplus stores***, liquidators and places that offered real bargains because nobody wanted the merchandise or knew these places existed... These things are all gone now and it bothers me that people can't really save money anywhere anymore because consumers are always getting ripped off one way or another... Store would rather send unused returned merchandise to the dumps than to sell it at discount for fear of polluting the perceived value of "discounted merchandise"... A brand new cordless drill in an opened boxed is better off in a garbage dump than in the hands of someone who can't afford one, but for whom it might make a huge difference if they could obtain it at cost or at fair mark down... it seems really crappy to me that this a standard thing, on a spiritual, moral and ethically cheap bastard levels... but consumers don't care, don't pay attention or know what things cost or what a reasonable price is anymore... and the internet make that worse because prices tend to get set by big retailers and everyone across the board just matches that price more or less uniformly, there is no need to try and compete because mostly the big online stores don't offer any real bargains... one only has to go to an actual store or know what something is actually supposed to cost to see the difference... Sure, sometimes you might find something like a lithium battery from some unknown vendor at the "Rainforest" store and it more or less works as promised, for a low price, but you also run the risk of purchasing one that catches on fire or is labeled "Lithium" but is actually NiCad... sure you can return if it isn't ash, but honestly... WTAF... consumers just suck it up and that's life... "Cabbage emptor", let the cabbage beware... I still get why the Romans said that but cabbages must have been an important part of the Roman economy.
But then again this probably more if a complaint from this side of the pond... from what I've seen the other side seems to care a bit more about consumers in general.
What pond, what side? I'm not saying, that might be forbidden... people probably know it's not the one with the little duckies down at the park.
Well... I formally end this lament/complaint/history of retail session.
Good day all.
* My friend insisted someone probably died while they were trying it on and it was likely haunted, but for $25 what's a little haunting gonna hurt?
** The East End of Long Island is infested with snobby vineyards with pretentious sounding names like "Duckwalk Vineyards" and "Jason's Vineyards"... okay, now that I said those two out loud, it sounds more like one is overrun with waterfowl and the other is owned by a guy in a bloody hockey mask wielding an equally bloody machete...
*** Like the Canal Street area stores of lower Manhattan which I frequently bemoan the demise of... a mad scientist/inventor's paradise of surplus stores selling everything from scrap metal, antique machinery parts, used cameras and parts, electronic parts, tools and even the ejector seat from an old A-4 Skyhawk trainer aircraft which I wanted to turn into an office chair... it was $100 more than I had, but damn that would have been the coolest/heaviest office chair ever.
I thought I had something to say but I was wrong.
I often think I have something to say, but usually reconsider (for various reasons) and just lurk instead.
Dana
Complaint: The vet has diagonsed my dog with breast cancer and is operating on her to remove it. It is expensive but she is a very sweet dog and worth it.
@ DanaTA: Sometimes I don't have anything to say, but get triggered in some conversation or other, and wish I didn't.
I knew vets could get breast cancer but I didn't know dogs could? I hope she recovers quickly and lives 7 or more years after that!
@McGyver. Yeah I remember rummaging around those electronics and cool stuff surplus stores. even out here on the other coast they are pretty much long gone.
I also bemoan the loss of the Downtown Ross store which originally was a clothing store (Ross Dress for Les℠) but ended up becoming more of a general surplus store that actually had great prices on everything from shoes and socks to bedroom stuff and cookware. Sadly the store met it's demise form both the pandemic and the demonstrations that sometimes turned into riots in downtown. (a number of businesses closed for good or pulled up stakes and moved).
So being "automotively challenged" as the few such stores that are left are out in the far flung burbs that take hours to get to on transit (mostly standing around waiting the next bus to arrive), shopping online has become pretty much my major resource with the exception of groceries, beer, and "inexpensive" table wine (I can't tell the difference between an 8$ or 80$ bottle of wine so no reason to set foot on one of those hoity toity vineyards)..
That outlet mall on Long Island you mention of sounds more like a resort or theme park (ConsumerLand?) what with hotels restaurants, wineries, and even a water park.
Was there a castle that was not kid safe? Something like the castle in the live action beauty and the beauty? But a real castle?
I would say most castles are not kid safe
real ones that is
We'll never know. There was no OSHA in the Middle Ages.
But also consider whether it would be safe for today's kids, or kids of the middle ages.
(No jokes about baby goats please)
I know kids who can't play in the grass safely.
An ai picture of a kid who can't play safe in the grass.
edit you can tell it is AI with the wtf pose!
He seems to have a third leg!
Dana
Ah ha! Somebody else noticed my issue with the word "pint" pronounced with a long 'i' instead of a short 'i'.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230302-can-dyslexia-change-in-other-languages
I am at a place like Starbucks where they have mobile orders. There was a mobile order bag for Eric or Erik. I first wondered if Erik Lehnsheer was here.
edit: can't remember how to spell Erik Lehnsheer's name.
Complaint: The snow came, the snow went completely away, the snow came, the snow went away again, all this in a week. And now the snow is back again, big time.
Good thing I toddled up to the grocery store yesterday for the first load this week. I guess the rest of the things on my list will have to wait until the snow goes again.
I haven't heard anything from our California people about their unusual weather. Do people in California visit these forums? Or do they live in a separate universe? Or are cold weather discussions forbidden left of the Rockies.
Or have they all been washed away by avalanches or floods?
Non-complaint: Cookies: Wheee... cold weather again. This time it triggered my cookie mode. Mmmm... homemade, walnut , oatmeal, chocolate-chip cookies.
This will have to be the last batch of the year. All essential ingredients (brown sugar, vanilla, Crisco, walnuts, choc-chips) have been used up.
Complaint: The half box of brown sugar had hardened into a rock and it took 30 minutes with a mortar and pestle to turn it back into granules.
kyoto kid lives in Portland, I live in Eugene, and there is someone else from Washington in this thread. We have all mentioned how excited(hah!) we are by the snow and cold. I don't know if you have heard, but there are rumors that people from California may be a little strange, lol.
Actually, I don't recall anyone in the forums mentioning they were from California.
Wonderland lives in LA and posts on the forums; but I have never seen her in this particular thread.
There are things you can put in the brown sugar box/bag that keep if from getting like that. We have one. Seems to be a clay disc. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=keep+brown+sugar+soft&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIusaBmYrS_QIVecmUCR2QWgAgEAAYASAAEgJg2PD_BwE&hvadid=410096411951&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9002169&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=9629312657687890841&hvtargid=kwd-11822025811&hydadcr=13958_11142924&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_5ycylhkavr_e To soften it quickly, use the microwave! https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/cooking/a40651706/how-to-soften-brown-sugar/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=arb_ga_ghk_md_pmx_us_urlx&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIusaBmYrS_QIVecmUCR2QWgAgEAAYAiAAEgKMbvD_BwE
Dana
If anyone remembers her, Merlea was in southern California. Sadly, she left us a few years ago.
Dana
And it seems that England is wobbling in wonky weather too.
I never have anything to say, yet that has never stopped me from just winging it completely and going off on some random chronical of nothingness, changing subject and topics like a crack addled, over caffeinated chimpanzee with the cable remote* and then like three or four thousand words later when it's all done and no point has been reached, achieved or even hinted at, I change the subject or whatever remotely came close to standing as one and suddenly show myself to the correspondence doorway... or more likely I fall out the window... of writing... abruptly, leaving the poor reader confused, and yearning for resolution or at least the twenty minutes of their life they just foolishly wasted.
My point being is... holy crap... I've got an actual point this time!!...
You don't need to have anything to say, to say stuff... it helps that maybe words should be in some order or something because if you just say "I go ten bananas Hasbro™sideways just at Der Ring des Nibelungen horse camper Thursday flapjack!", then as interesting as that might sound, nobody is going to flapjack spatula frankfurters a Timbuktu what you are hammocking.
Technically from what I've come to understand, the first amendment of the Constitution actually requires you to say anything you want in no particular order, for no particular reason a least once a day on weekdays and three times on weekends, except not before noon on Sundays...
Most people don't understand why the founding fathers and their founding mothers would have built a wooden ship that tells us what to do and what not to do, but back before the Great Hamster Wars, oak sailing ships held a lot of sway and people respected their influence... which is why every time I'm in Boston, deliberately or not, I try to stop by the U.S.S. Constitution to pay respect to it's mighty oak beams and the fact that sailors used to pee from the bow of the ship...
Which initially seems contrary to the peeing conventions on other forms of more modern transportation like airplanes and submarines where rearward traveling physical media like air or water would send the pee back towards you, though on a submarine the water would probably knock you backwards with the pee as it submerged and then you'd be swirling around in your own pee... maybe a train would be a better example, but technically most of them don't allow you to pee from the front of the locomotive and if it's a subway, at least a New York City subway you are encouraged to pee where ever you feel like... Well except that compartment where the conductor or door operator guy lives, they get all cranky if you pee in there... probably because it's a small room and it's hard not to pee on them if you do...
Or so I've heard...
On a regular sailboat or mighty three masted naval frigate which is always the subject of insane debates and ludicrous speculation, you can actually pee off the front of the boat... unless it's one of those sailing tours you can go on during a vacation in the Bahamas... they also get really cranky about that, especially when the wind shifts to the side...
In which case, I'm sorry... first off don't invite a descendant of pirates on a drinking cruise featuring the all time favorite beverage of pirates... namely, rum if you are remotely pee shy or don't like out of tune sea chanties...
Historically bow based peeing was encouraged because on a sailing ship it's favorable to have the wind blowing from the back of the ship, thus propelling it forward which much more efficient than backwards because everyone is usually looking at the guy peeing off the pointy end of the ship and if you are going backwards while everyone is looking forward at the peeing person, you are likely to run over a whale or mermaid... also since the pointy end allows the ship to move through the water more efficiently because of hydrodynamics or something, the pointy end was the front and the flat end was where you flipped off the authorities from as you made your escape...
Since the wind was traveling frontwards, your pee would be blow away from the ship where it would become the problem of the dolphins traveling below... I'm assuming dolphins didn't mind being peed on because to this day they still race forward of sailing ships presumably hoping they'll still get peed on... they have lots of issues and bizarre kinks, dolphins do... you gotta be real careful what you say around them, lest they misinterpret your intentions...
But anyway that's why to this day we still say "I'm going to the head" when you are going to pee off a moving vehicle, unless it's a subway, in which case you do you.
See, I literally had nothing to say when I read that thing you wrote which due to thousands of misfiring neurons, I've already forgotten the subject of...
I'm presuming it was about "where should I pee when visiting a wooden historical document ship" or something about saying random things in no particular wheelbarrow pudding pocket.
Don't worry about people not getting what you say... nonsense is cathartic, it liberates the soul and is the basis of the multibillion dollar social media industry which is still yet to achieve pony spork left hammer chicken dingle pig freckles level and probably never will.
If you feel like pig freckling raw pumpkin Chumbawamba bucket, then go for it.
And remember... if you want to be a good citizen there is an old wooden ship in Boston that's gonna kick your hamburger thermostat if you don't say tons of stuff every day just like the founding family members required you to over two thousand years ago or whenever the hell they finished their tea party... which I assume was a code word for booze party or tea was alcohol ladened back then.
I hope that was helpful and if it wasn't, why did you start reading it?...
Were you seriously expecting something helpful or even remotely coherent from me?...
Well, hopefully you don't feel completely ripped off because no matter how fast you read that, it's time you are never getting back and now you are that much older and I can guarantee absolutely not wiser, unless you skipped ahead to this point which is actually pretty smart because this is where I get to my point which I believe is "It's okay to pee anywhere you want on a subway"... I think...
And out the window I go.
Ba-bye!
Weeeeeeeeee!
*I realize most people use streaming services now, but a whacked out chimp wouldn’t have the patience to operate a streaming remote or navigate the generally horrible GUIs and menus… in fact it would definitely smash and then poop on an AppleTV remote, so a cable remote would be a more appropriate example of frantic attention deficit caused by hyper stimulation.
Coherence is overrated.
Incoherence is a natural cycle... we are born incoherent and if you live long enough you die incoherent... unless you are really old and you are giving a rousing and lucid lecture on Newtonian physics and the correlation of gravity wells respective to celestial bodies orbiting binary stars and suddenly a flying shark bites your head off... that's unfortunate, but at least one would go out coherently... and rather memorably and undoubtedly as the subject of a lot of TikTok parodies.
I wish her a successful and effective procedure/operation and a speedy recovery.
Good luck and be well.
Both of you.
Today is my laundry day. So with two loads of laundry (one in washer and the other is in dryer) I walked to Starbucks. Aparently due the weather was as nasty as it looked. I got my sweatpants wet and also spilled coffee all over the bag I brought with me.
When I got home, I took out all the clothes from the dryer since they were dry. Then I put the clothes in the washer into the dryer. I also put some clothes into the washer which included those sweatpants and that fabric bag. Also for some reason, we need to tell the staff when the washer and dryer were ready to be turned on. I told my staff the dryer was ready but didn't mention if the washer was ready to be turned on.
Well, she came and started the dryer and it sounds like the washer is started too.
Oh, I found a free swimsuit that was free. It can't fit me, but it is free. That site also has a free jumpsuit which is also free. It can't fit me either. I think this particular site has nothing that fits me. Howevver both free items were free with no purchase required I think?
I got an email earlier saying that I get a free item but went to that site. I could not find the free item so I looked at that email again. It said free with ten dollar purchase. Oh that was a site that sells clothes patterns. I don't need to buy any more clothes patterns at this time as I need to use what I already have. Also I doubt that site has any clothes patterns that would fit me. But then I think it might be because they are doll clothes patterns. For some reason I can't fit clothes made for 18 inch dolls or 23 inch dolls?
But it makes a LASER shine.
This is what total mastery of an instrument looks like: