I got an email yesterday from, presumed dead, Circuit City online. Apparently, Circuit City sold their brand name to Systemax Inc. The site looks pretty much the same as it used to. So, where's the value here?
There are discount electronics sites aplenty out there: Buy.com, Tiger Direct, New Egg, and Amazon. Plus there's still Best Buy and Walmart.
While the major driving force behind Circuit City (as well as CompUSA and Tweeter)'s demise was the diminishing returns of brick-and-mortar stores in an increasingly online marketplace, the online marketplace is pretty tight as well. Yes, the overhead of an online concern is much less impinging on the bottom line than that of a physical presence. However, how popular was Circuit City online prior to the bankruptcy? Wasn't one of the few redeeming features of the site the fact that you could order online and go pick up your item that very day from the physical store?
There were two famous online stores who closed and reopened under new management. Both of which seem to be doing o.k. at this time. Pets.com (remember the sock puppet dog?) was picked up by PetSmart. Mothernature.com died in 2000, but came back in 2002.
Here's the interesting thing about Systemax: They own Tiger Direct. They had also picked up the CompUSA brand. So, ultimately, they are not adding much overhead to their business, merely front-ending their supply chain with yet another brand.
Perhaps the floundering newspaper industry will follow this model. As actual physical papers shut down their printing presses, perhaps large online news services will offer localized versions of their content to online subscribers.
Isn't economics interesting?
Monday, May 25, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Kids, age, and freedom
I recently read an essay by America's Worst Mom, Lenore Skenazy. She earned this dubious title by allowing her nine year old son to ride the subway home in NYC by himself.
Before I read the details, I too was ready to dub her an unfit parent. What was she thinking? Allowing a nine year old to navigate New York City and its public transportation system by himself? Then I read the details and her reasoning.
Skenazy makes some very interesting points. Crime is down relative to when I was a kid. In the 1960's I lived in Baltimore, where I rode public transportation three miles home from my first grade glass, admittedly with a group of other kids - but none of them was older than 10. Do we really think the streets are more dangerous now than they were then?
More importantly, how can we expect our children to grow into independent adults if we don't let the leash out a bit. How old IS old enough to maneuver a city's public transportation system to get home? Ultimately, the answer to that question is: When your child is ready. This is exactly the point Skenazy made. She felt that her child was ready for that level of independence.
How old does your child have to be to be able to stay home by themselves for several hours after school? How old to be allowed to have a friend over when there are no supervising adults in the house? How old to drive?
That last one is an ongoing discussion in our house. My son turned 16 in April. Many of his friends immediately got the driver's licenses within a week of the celebration. We are in no hurry. Grendel is very intelligent. However, Grendel can be a real space case.
This weekend, he spent Friday night at a friend's house. We asked that he take his cell phone. We also asked for the number at the house in case he didn't answer his cell phone (a frequent occurrence when he's at other people's houses). Around lunch time on Saturday, I decided to call him to find out when he was coming home. He did not answer his cell phone. I called the (supposed) house number. It turned out that the number was for his friend's cell phone, which also went unanswered. I looked up the parents in the local phone directory and called the listed number: disconnected. I eventually sent a text message to Grendel's phone telling him to call me. He did call me about 15 minutes later.
Considering the circumstances, and his past history with unreachability and inability to return home at appointed times, I informed him that he was grounded until he obtained employment. He's been talking-the-talk about getting a job for months. We have insisted that he work or volunteer his time this summer. He accepted his grounding gracefully, fully accepting that he had screwed up in this regard again. To make sure that he came home in a timely fashion, I put consequences on levels of lateness involving his ability to attend a church activity next weekend. Again, he fully accepted the arrangement. He even showed up 10 minutes before the first consequence would have hit.
I want Grendel to drive. I like the idea of him taking himself to activities when I don't feel like leaving the house. However, I am not willing to give him that freedom when I cannot trust that I will know where he is, be able to reach him, and be assured that he will make every effort to return home by an agreed upon time. I do not need that kind of aggravation.
There are probably plenty of nine year olds out there who are quite capable of navigating a subway system. Just like there are probably plenty of sixteen year olds out there who can remember to keep their cell phone in their pocket and make sure that they get home when they agreed they would. Every parent needs to know their child well enough to know when they are ready to attempt to take on the next level of personal responsibility for themselves. The parent also needs to appreciate their own tolerance for uncertainty.
Maybe I'm not ready for the level of uncertainty in letting Grendel drive just yet. Hopefully, soon.
Before I read the details, I too was ready to dub her an unfit parent. What was she thinking? Allowing a nine year old to navigate New York City and its public transportation system by himself? Then I read the details and her reasoning.
Skenazy makes some very interesting points. Crime is down relative to when I was a kid. In the 1960's I lived in Baltimore, where I rode public transportation three miles home from my first grade glass, admittedly with a group of other kids - but none of them was older than 10. Do we really think the streets are more dangerous now than they were then?
More importantly, how can we expect our children to grow into independent adults if we don't let the leash out a bit. How old IS old enough to maneuver a city's public transportation system to get home? Ultimately, the answer to that question is: When your child is ready. This is exactly the point Skenazy made. She felt that her child was ready for that level of independence.
How old does your child have to be to be able to stay home by themselves for several hours after school? How old to be allowed to have a friend over when there are no supervising adults in the house? How old to drive?
That last one is an ongoing discussion in our house. My son turned 16 in April. Many of his friends immediately got the driver's licenses within a week of the celebration. We are in no hurry. Grendel is very intelligent. However, Grendel can be a real space case.
This weekend, he spent Friday night at a friend's house. We asked that he take his cell phone. We also asked for the number at the house in case he didn't answer his cell phone (a frequent occurrence when he's at other people's houses). Around lunch time on Saturday, I decided to call him to find out when he was coming home. He did not answer his cell phone. I called the (supposed) house number. It turned out that the number was for his friend's cell phone, which also went unanswered. I looked up the parents in the local phone directory and called the listed number: disconnected. I eventually sent a text message to Grendel's phone telling him to call me. He did call me about 15 minutes later.
Considering the circumstances, and his past history with unreachability and inability to return home at appointed times, I informed him that he was grounded until he obtained employment. He's been talking-the-talk about getting a job for months. We have insisted that he work or volunteer his time this summer. He accepted his grounding gracefully, fully accepting that he had screwed up in this regard again. To make sure that he came home in a timely fashion, I put consequences on levels of lateness involving his ability to attend a church activity next weekend. Again, he fully accepted the arrangement. He even showed up 10 minutes before the first consequence would have hit.
I want Grendel to drive. I like the idea of him taking himself to activities when I don't feel like leaving the house. However, I am not willing to give him that freedom when I cannot trust that I will know where he is, be able to reach him, and be assured that he will make every effort to return home by an agreed upon time. I do not need that kind of aggravation.
There are probably plenty of nine year olds out there who are quite capable of navigating a subway system. Just like there are probably plenty of sixteen year olds out there who can remember to keep their cell phone in their pocket and make sure that they get home when they agreed they would. Every parent needs to know their child well enough to know when they are ready to attempt to take on the next level of personal responsibility for themselves. The parent also needs to appreciate their own tolerance for uncertainty.
Maybe I'm not ready for the level of uncertainty in letting Grendel drive just yet. Hopefully, soon.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
ADD and Facebook
OK. Maybe I do have ADD.
A couple of weeks ago, I gave in and activated my Facebook profile. I found most of my college friends and invited them to be my 'friend' on Facebook. I also sent invites to several former coworkers spanning most of my career. I am officially drinking the Kool-Aid.
For several years now I have eschewed Facebook. As an information security professional, I could tell you about the dangers of social networking sites (particularly MySpace ... if I log in there again, kill me, please). However, I have been a Twitter bug for quite some time now. Plus, I knew that many of my friends did the Facebook thing.
Facebook is addictive. Really. Twitter was bad enough. I love Twitter. It's like Haiku of the information age. The challenge is to say something witty in 140 characters or less (I dare you). However, Facebook allows you to easily interact with your gang of friends. You can post pictures. You can comment on other people's posts. You can add links. You can respond to quizes (I don't) and post your top 5 whatevers.
Facebook's interface notifies you when your friends have posted something, or when there's been a comment attached to a friend's post. It's like being at a party and jumping into other people's conversations. Twitter is like standing up on your desk and uttering your opinion to anyone who decided to hang out and listen when they saw you starting to climb up there.
It seems that the more that I use Facebook, the less that I post to my blog. This seems to be true for my friends as well. (Except for Dr Momentum who is prolific in all venues. It must be because he sleeps even less than I do.)
I will not give up my blog. Who knows? Maybe I'll even have something interesting to say from time to time. However, I think I must have ADD. Twitter, and now Facebook, have a great amount of appeal to me. I can keep shallowly in touch with people with very little effort, and often with a high degree of amusement.
Welcome to the short attention span era.
A couple of weeks ago, I gave in and activated my Facebook profile. I found most of my college friends and invited them to be my 'friend' on Facebook. I also sent invites to several former coworkers spanning most of my career. I am officially drinking the Kool-Aid.
For several years now I have eschewed Facebook. As an information security professional, I could tell you about the dangers of social networking sites (particularly MySpace ... if I log in there again, kill me, please). However, I have been a Twitter bug for quite some time now. Plus, I knew that many of my friends did the Facebook thing.
Facebook is addictive. Really. Twitter was bad enough. I love Twitter. It's like Haiku of the information age. The challenge is to say something witty in 140 characters or less (I dare you). However, Facebook allows you to easily interact with your gang of friends. You can post pictures. You can comment on other people's posts. You can add links. You can respond to quizes (I don't) and post your top 5 whatevers.
Facebook's interface notifies you when your friends have posted something, or when there's been a comment attached to a friend's post. It's like being at a party and jumping into other people's conversations. Twitter is like standing up on your desk and uttering your opinion to anyone who decided to hang out and listen when they saw you starting to climb up there.
It seems that the more that I use Facebook, the less that I post to my blog. This seems to be true for my friends as well. (Except for Dr Momentum who is prolific in all venues. It must be because he sleeps even less than I do.)
I will not give up my blog. Who knows? Maybe I'll even have something interesting to say from time to time. However, I think I must have ADD. Twitter, and now Facebook, have a great amount of appeal to me. I can keep shallowly in touch with people with very little effort, and often with a high degree of amusement.
Welcome to the short attention span era.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Bargain traveler
In a couple of weeks, I need to take a trip to attend some training. I've noticed a propensity for hyperbole in the training industry. Initially, I was supposed to get this training in Burlington, MA. The training center advertises itself as being in Boston. Huge humor. Not only is the training center about 30 minutes outside of Boston, it's a good deal further than that from the actual airport.
The training I am now signed up for advertises itself as being in Chicago. Though I despise traveling, I was a little psyched since I've wanted to see Chicago for quite some time. In this instance, I still won't be seeing Chicago. The training is actually in Schaumburg. The upside is that I actually have a friend who lives in Schaumburg. We're planning on getting together for dinner one night.
I haven't traveled for work in a few years. The last time I traveled I used my personal laptop bag. That laptop and bag now belong to my son. I could borrow the bag back from him, but I decided to get a new one as part of a personal bribery system for putting up with the travel. So, I picked up a nifty Mobile Edge ScanFast pink and brown case from Amazon. It was a buck or so pricier than the same bag at eBags, but I get free shipping at Amazon.
After the laptop bag came, I started thinking that I wanted a nice piece of luggage to go with it, a piece that would serve me for trips longer than a weekend but no more than a week. I am a pretty efficient packer, especially for someone who hates to travel. I did a lot of research and poking around on eBags. I decided that I would do some real world shopping to get an idea of how big some of the bags I was seeing online really were. I checked out a few local Walmarts, but I was underimpressed with their selection. On a whim I stopped at Building 19.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Building 19, imagine your local dollar store, on steroids, in a large dark and dreary warehouse-like space. Imagine all sorts of off-brand crap that even K-mart would have been too embarrassed to sell. Mostly it's a disappointing experience, but sometimes you can stumble on real bargains. Yesterday, I found a great little bag that I thought would do the trick. It was tagged as 'blemished', though I could see nothing wrong with it initially. However, on closer inspection I did notice that one of the side snaps was dysfunctional. Grendel was with me. I shrugged and decided to hit the restroom before we left. When I came out he was holding (what I thought was) the bag. He said he found another one in the pile of bags while I was in the restroom. He said all the snaps and zippers appeared to work. So we bought it for $39.99. This turned out to be a pretty good bargain, since even eBags sale price for this Liz Claiborne 20" city bag is around $76.
Gosh, I love feeling like I snagged a good bargain. Plus, I love that my usually grumpy teen found enough energy and initiative to help me in my quest.
The training I am now signed up for advertises itself as being in Chicago. Though I despise traveling, I was a little psyched since I've wanted to see Chicago for quite some time. In this instance, I still won't be seeing Chicago. The training is actually in Schaumburg. The upside is that I actually have a friend who lives in Schaumburg. We're planning on getting together for dinner one night.
I haven't traveled for work in a few years. The last time I traveled I used my personal laptop bag. That laptop and bag now belong to my son. I could borrow the bag back from him, but I decided to get a new one as part of a personal bribery system for putting up with the travel. So, I picked up a nifty Mobile Edge ScanFast pink and brown case from Amazon. It was a buck or so pricier than the same bag at eBags, but I get free shipping at Amazon.
After the laptop bag came, I started thinking that I wanted a nice piece of luggage to go with it, a piece that would serve me for trips longer than a weekend but no more than a week. I am a pretty efficient packer, especially for someone who hates to travel. I did a lot of research and poking around on eBags. I decided that I would do some real world shopping to get an idea of how big some of the bags I was seeing online really were. I checked out a few local Walmarts, but I was underimpressed with their selection. On a whim I stopped at Building 19.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Building 19, imagine your local dollar store, on steroids, in a large dark and dreary warehouse-like space. Imagine all sorts of off-brand crap that even K-mart would have been too embarrassed to sell. Mostly it's a disappointing experience, but sometimes you can stumble on real bargains. Yesterday, I found a great little bag that I thought would do the trick. It was tagged as 'blemished', though I could see nothing wrong with it initially. However, on closer inspection I did notice that one of the side snaps was dysfunctional. Grendel was with me. I shrugged and decided to hit the restroom before we left. When I came out he was holding (what I thought was) the bag. He said he found another one in the pile of bags while I was in the restroom. He said all the snaps and zippers appeared to work. So we bought it for $39.99. This turned out to be a pretty good bargain, since even eBags sale price for this Liz Claiborne 20" city bag is around $76.
Gosh, I love feeling like I snagged a good bargain. Plus, I love that my usually grumpy teen found enough energy and initiative to help me in my quest.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Star Trek: The New Frontier
Grendel and I just got back from seeing the new Star Trek flick. I was expecting to both like it and hate it. Having been a long time fan, I knew that the ST community took issue with a lot of the twists in the history.
I loved the casting, particularly Zachary Quinto as Spock and Simon Pegg as Scotty!
Grendel thought the film was good, but he wasn't inspired by it. He couldn't remember any of the original ST episodes he's been exposed to over the years. There were a number of insider bits that he just didn't pick up on that tickled me to no end: "Fascinating" ... "I'm a doctor not an ..."
And what did I think?
By the time the credits rolled up I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I am SO looking forward to more flicks in this revitalized version of the ST universe. I understand where the die hard fans took issue. However, I totally understand why the altered history was necessary to revitalize the franchise. And, I really like some of the alterations. I'm not saying that I have anything but the greatest respect for the original version of the ST universe history. However, I think the changes give the creative team a good deal to work with.
***SPOILER ALERT***
What changes/nuances did I enjoy the most?
1) Uhuru/Spock - YES!
2) Spock getting schooled by his much older self so that maybe it won't take him decades to lighten up a bit. As well as Spock's father giving him the humbling insight about why he married Amanda.
3) Kirk as an even more irreverent unpredictable and hormonal smart ass, since he didn't have his father around to temper him growing up.
4) Chekov as a brilliant 17 year old. Reminded me of Wesley Crusher, but not nearly so freaking annoying.
5) Scotty as an outcast of sorts, with his little alien side kick.
Oh, and I LOVED the song they played during young Kirk's car theft experience. There's a great commentary on why they might have picked it. Slight amusing slam at Shatner.
More, more, more, please!!
I loved the casting, particularly Zachary Quinto as Spock and Simon Pegg as Scotty!
Grendel thought the film was good, but he wasn't inspired by it. He couldn't remember any of the original ST episodes he's been exposed to over the years. There were a number of insider bits that he just didn't pick up on that tickled me to no end: "Fascinating" ... "I'm a doctor not an ..."
And what did I think?
By the time the credits rolled up I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I am SO looking forward to more flicks in this revitalized version of the ST universe. I understand where the die hard fans took issue. However, I totally understand why the altered history was necessary to revitalize the franchise. And, I really like some of the alterations. I'm not saying that I have anything but the greatest respect for the original version of the ST universe history. However, I think the changes give the creative team a good deal to work with.
***SPOILER ALERT***
What changes/nuances did I enjoy the most?
1) Uhuru/Spock - YES!
2) Spock getting schooled by his much older self so that maybe it won't take him decades to lighten up a bit. As well as Spock's father giving him the humbling insight about why he married Amanda.
3) Kirk as an even more irreverent unpredictable and hormonal smart ass, since he didn't have his father around to temper him growing up.
4) Chekov as a brilliant 17 year old. Reminded me of Wesley Crusher, but not nearly so freaking annoying.
5) Scotty as an outcast of sorts, with his little alien side kick.
Oh, and I LOVED the song they played during young Kirk's car theft experience. There's a great commentary on why they might have picked it. Slight amusing slam at Shatner.
More, more, more, please!!
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