10:22 – As usual, I’ll be working on science kits this week. I also hope to be able to devote at least a few hours to several longer-range projects. There’s never enough time.
13:38 – I keep seeing these articles in the MSM about how the economy is improving, consumer confidence is up, and so on. I don’t buy it. I think things have really tanked in the last couple of months. We see that in our business. From January through the end of May, our sales were running between three and four times month-on-month 2012 sales. Then things seemed to fall off a cliff. In June, we beat June 2012 numbers by maybe 20%. We may or may not beat last year’s number this month.
But it’s not just us. I’ve exchanged email with several other small business owners, and they all tell me the same thing: sales have really slowed over the last couple of months. And I see other evidence as well. I’m getting a bunch of promo emails from many of our minor vendors. They’re all similar. One formerly offered free shipping on orders over $75. They’re now offering free shipping on any order. Another dropped the limit for free shipping from $250 to $25. Yet another is offering 20% discounts on any order over $100. And so on. And none of these are vendors for whom this is ordinarily a slow time of year. That tells me that a lot of businesses are trying desperately to generate traffic and sales. Even Costco seems to be pushing harder than usual.
Will you ever write another computer hardware book like PCHiaN or Building the Perfect PC?
Nope. I just don’t have time. We almost didn’t do the most recent edition of BtPP. I talked then with Ron Morse about collaborating on it, but Barbara and I ended up doing it ourselves. If there’s ever to be a new edition, Ron or someone like him will have to do it, because we sure don’t have time.
O’Reilly/MAKE has wanted another science title from me for quite a while, but I just don’t have time.
“What if George hadn’t gotten out of his truck?”
http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/22/george-zimmerman-grabs-fire-extinguisher-pulls-family-from-overturned-suv/
I guess that he did not learn his lesson to ignore things and keep on driving by.
sales have really slowed over the last couple of months.
Yup. Even in the oil and gas (natural gas) business things are slowing down. Energy usage in the USA continues to drop as more and more people are unemployed and/or moving to more efficient transportation.
Bob,
Your PC books are great, but I think you have a hit with science books and kits. Plus I think it’s what you love and it’s not a job. Keep it up until some company offers you 10 million dollars for the rights.
I see Jesse Jackson is tweeting about what a “gentleman” Trayvon Martin was. I guess he’s another of his son’s since he knows him so well. The race baiting is beyond reality. People are already responding about Martin’s ho, thug, gun, nigga posts. Gentleman, not.
Kind of strange, listening to a scientist — one with a laboratory of his own, mind you — grumbling about a lack of time. Forget subjectively speeding up perception of time with chemical products. No way! I’m talking full-blown warping the laws of nature.
Interesting.
Kind of strange, listening to a scientist — one with a laboratory of his own, mind you — grumbling about a lack of time.
Most of the scientists that I have met, real scientists, not the wannabes, have no clue of time. Days, weeks, months can go by and you never see them.
Energy usage in the USA continues to drop as more and more people are unemployed and/or moving to more efficient transportation.
So what do the states do about the drop in consumption. Why they raise the taxes per gallon. The revenue is dropping because the consumption is dropping. Georgia just raised the taxes per gallon by $0.10 a gallon. The states tell us “conserve, conserve and oh by the way, the amount you save we are going to take it from you so your conservation efforts just put money in our pockets and kept what you saved out of your pockets.”
The ACT government run water utility did the same thing. During a recent drought they raised the price of water to encourage conservation. When the drought broke and consumption fell they suffered a drop in revenue. So they raised the price again.
And conversation ensued. 🙂
Ha ha, thanks. I’ve fixed it now.
Sure, that’s what the criminals who run the State do; they are gonna get our money one way or the other, that’s flat. Price of gasoline is up again here, of course, and it’s interesting to see the variations within just our little state; if the station is near a highway interchange, the price may be as much as ten cents a gallon higher. And the prices are generally higher anyway in Burlington and Chittenden County, where the number of people and volume of traffic are greatest. And every fall we go through the exercise of them threatening to raise the cost of heating oil and then doing it, for whatever the reason might be this year. This country is just a huge racket, all the time, where the fix is always in.
And every fall we go through the exercise of them threatening to raise the cost of heating oil and then doing it, for whatever the reason might be this year.
You mean like the more expensive summer blend of fuel, and the more expensive blend of winter fuel. Every blend is more expensive than the last.
So what do the states do about the drop in consumption. Why they raise the taxes per gallon. The revenue is dropping because the consumption is dropping. Georgia just raised the taxes per gallon by $0.10 a gallon. The states tell us “conserve, conserve and oh by the way, the amount you save we are going to take it from you so your conservation efforts just put money in our pockets and kept what you saved out of your pockets.”
I think that California is the highest in the nation at 72 cents/gallon of gasoline.
Here in the Great State of Texas, we are back up to the 5th or 6th largest energy producer in the world. We even supply natural gas to Mexico now so they can convert it to directed electron streams (some call it electricity) and sell it back to us.
So, the taxes from all this newly found riches goes into the state rainy day fund and we are talking about robbing that to fix all of our broken roads from the overweight oil trucks. Our gasoline tax here is 38 cents/gal and I wish that they would raise that. And stop taking 1/4 of the gasoline tax for the children XXXXXXXX schools.
“You mean like the more expensive summer blend of fuel, and the more expensive blend of winter fuel. Every blend is more expensive than the last.”
And stuff like “the distributors miscalculated inventories due to changing weather patterns;” and “supplies fluctuate due to changing consumption patterns…”, etc.
They just sling a line of bull every fall and every spring and people just suck it up and pay. We’ll see if they keep paying when the price per gallon approaches European levels.
They just sling a line of bull every fall and every spring and people just suck it up and pay.
I also notice they shut down a refinery for maintenance, close a pipeline, fart in the wind, set a refinery on fire. Whatever the oil companies can do to manipulate the prices and keep the prices climbing.
Back during the original crisis of the cartels, so-called, in the early 70’s, I was stationed up on Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County, just north of SF at a radar site and we could, on a clear day, see 100 miles in all directions. They were doing the odd-even license plate bullshit and the cars were backed up for blocks at all the gas stations. Meanwhile we could look out to sea a ways and see twenty or thirty tankers lined up just sitting there. So this crap was going on forty years ago and now they’ve….R U ready for this…sitting down, guys?…..REFINED the chicanery.