64. Whose Business Is It?
A few months ago I related an incident about a friend forced to bring a lawsuit against his bank. See Article No. 58, March 2002, for the full details. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/agin...
Who could have guessed that this one bank incident was a little hint of things yet to come? I am referring specifically to some of our current business news headlines, which involve WorldCom Inc. and AOL-Time Warner to name a few. Oh, and let’s not forget Enron.
What? Now it becomes evident that there have been some “creative bookkeeping” procedures that show numbers off in the billions, not just millions, but billions. This is another instance when one first starts out laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation, then crying, before fear sets in and turns into paralysis.
It isn’t necessary to understand big business or the world of finance to know that we all end up paying our share of those billions. The fact is that the “trickle down” theory is real and it’s only a matter of time until each of us is directly affected. Of course we are always influenced indirectly, but the change is gradual and adjustments are made without major discomfort.
One indirect influence that has come to my attention as a consumer is how boring it is to go shopping nowadays.
I’m not a typical shopper, I never have been. Basically I only do gift shopping a few times a year. I do, however, enjoy strolling and looking at all the latest goods whenever time allows. I call it “merchandising,” or just keeping up with trends.
Perhaps I’m part of the prime reason why designers/manufacturers ignore us, (senior citizens), as a consumer group that matters because we don’t spend enough dollars. I submit that perhaps the converse is more appropriate; if manufacturers targeted our needs/wants more, we would spend the money. But this is another separate issue altogether.
Why is shopping so boring? In Los Angeles, it began when Macy’s took over Robinson’s and Bullock’s. In San Francisco the Emporium and a few other large department stores also gave way to buy-outs and mergers. Okay!
But when I leave California I expect to find new and varied stores where I haven’t previously shopped. For example, I anticipated at least a full day of exploring and browsing around downtown Portland, Oregon. Except for only a few artsy stores, I ended up going home empty handed after only a few hours. They had the same damn stores I have at home in any California mall.
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