Well, having maundered on previously about how bleak the restaurant business looks here, I have to say that this last weekend kinda revised things - both the cafe's we visited for brunch over the weekend were busy, and Mimi's (last night) was so full we had to wait for a table.
mind you, after saying a 5 minute wait, we wound up waiting 25 minutes: then, after ordering, we waited a full hour, then walked out without ever seeing any of the food we'd ordered. So if they were busy, I guess it was an unanticipated rush. Oh .. of course, I've just realised Sunday was Fathers Day, so lots more people out doing ritual celebrations (or is it ritual sacrifice, haha)
So maybe that was just a temporary bobble.
It does make me wonder how things are going elsewhere in the world, though. I know from Sarah's comments that Chicago doesn't seem to be much touched, but both New York and DC seem to be hit very hard (per other blogs), and Glynn says west London is suffering a real rash of closing shops, both chains and boutiques. Grim times all over, I guess.
We took the weekend very quietly, otherwise: it was Cat's menses, and in the last couple of years these seem to have been hitting her harder and harder, to the point of writing off at least one day each time to total pain/disability.
Times like this, being a woman just doesn't seem like fun at all: so many of the women I've known seem to have crushing, appalling periods (probably none as bad as Rosemary's, but mostly pretty bad), and it just seems so ... cruel, I guess. Thirty or forty years of that and -then- you get to deal with menopause (and .. menopause? you mean it's gonna start again? ).
Never mind, at least women get to spend some of their time not awash with hormones, unlike men, who seem to always be on a hormone high (or low, depending on your viewpoint). And, yanno, external genitalia aren't the worlds greatest invention either (he said, crossing his legs nervously).
Enough of that for the day. I was going to write something about anger, but that'll keep for another time.
Showing posts with label shopping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shopping. Show all posts
Monday, June 22, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Timing
Well, we seem to be having a perverse run of good fortune: I say perverse, because everything seems to be breaking down: the TV has developed a truly alarming neon-green overlay, which makes watching everything quite, well, trippy; the old phone has died and been replaced, the washing machine has been acting up (and smelling of hot motor oil!).
But this is good fortune, as they all seem to happening just before the warranties run out: poor planning on the manufacturers' part, I'm sure.
It does remind me of one thing that has struck both of us here, tho: the sheer amount of stuff people buy: not just clothes and such, but furniture, sports equipment, decorations, machinery, TVs & electrical knickknacks, you name it. I mean, I know we live in a consumerist society, but that seems to be exaggerated to the Nth degree here, compared to NZ, or even the UK.
In the UK, the homes always seemed jam-packed and stuffed overfull, but that always seemed like a function of the tiny crammed houses they live in (at least, in London & the South East, where we were): they might have a three-bedroom house, but it would be less than 1000 sq ft (or tiny, by NZ standard), so naturally just trying to fit everything they wanted into it, left it crammed. Of course, they also grotesquely overdecorated, but that's a different rant.
Here, the houses are 2 or 3 times as large on average - we have gone from an 800sqft 2 bedroom 9th story flat in London, to a 1500sqft 3 bedroom bungalow with a back yard (and a creek!) in Little Rock, and halved our rent in the process.
But the houses mostly seem to be at least as overfull as the English (although without the horrible overdecoration, thank ghu). TVs & CD players in every room, all manner of expensive toys, just stuff lying around because they don't have storage space for it, you name it: even people I'd regard as not very well off at all, still seem to have just ..... well, tons of junk.
Fortunately, I think, we're too old to start developing habits or tastes like this :) But it does ram home to me in a pretty visceral way, just how driven they are to shop, and how they're sold this bill of goods that shopping is inherently enjoyable.
But this is good fortune, as they all seem to happening just before the warranties run out: poor planning on the manufacturers' part, I'm sure.
It does remind me of one thing that has struck both of us here, tho: the sheer amount of stuff people buy: not just clothes and such, but furniture, sports equipment, decorations, machinery, TVs & electrical knickknacks, you name it. I mean, I know we live in a consumerist society, but that seems to be exaggerated to the Nth degree here, compared to NZ, or even the UK.
In the UK, the homes always seemed jam-packed and stuffed overfull, but that always seemed like a function of the tiny crammed houses they live in (at least, in London & the South East, where we were): they might have a three-bedroom house, but it would be less than 1000 sq ft (or tiny, by NZ standard), so naturally just trying to fit everything they wanted into it, left it crammed. Of course, they also grotesquely overdecorated, but that's a different rant.
Here, the houses are 2 or 3 times as large on average - we have gone from an 800sqft 2 bedroom 9th story flat in London, to a 1500sqft 3 bedroom bungalow with a back yard (and a creek!) in Little Rock, and halved our rent in the process.
But the houses mostly seem to be at least as overfull as the English (although without the horrible overdecoration, thank ghu). TVs & CD players in every room, all manner of expensive toys, just stuff lying around because they don't have storage space for it, you name it: even people I'd regard as not very well off at all, still seem to have just ..... well, tons of junk.
Fortunately, I think, we're too old to start developing habits or tastes like this :) But it does ram home to me in a pretty visceral way, just how driven they are to shop, and how they're sold this bill of goods that shopping is inherently enjoyable.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Cars
Well, perhaps there's fewer differences between the States and the UK than we thought. We picked up our new car yesterday, a leased Honda Accord. The arrangement we'd made with the salesman was that we'd pick the car up on Wednesday (when the rental was due to be renewed), or he'd provide a loaner until our car was ready.
Cat dropped the rental at Budget (where it had cost us an arm and a leg for rental), and caught a taxi to the Honda agency, where she'd been told the car would be ready at 3 o'clock. She was apparently sat down, and essentially ignored for a couple of hours, without being told what was going on or why the delay (or how long the delay would be), and no sign of any loaner. At that point she phoned me, fairly upset, & I arranged to catch a taxi out there and pick up her and the car, and deal with the car yard myself, as she was out of all patience with them.
She then called back shortly thereafter, having left the lot because one of the sales managers had approached her in an unpleasantly aggressive manner and, in the guise of apologising, tried to make her feel angry or bad (I guess as a way of feeling justified in the way they'd treated her). Fortunately rather than losing it with him, she just left the lot, and waited for me on the next sidestreet.
After I picked her up and went back to the yard (I had an internal debate about just telling them to stuff it & walking away from the deal - but the practical problems that that would have created were too great), I dealt with the salesman we'd originally dealt with, who was very apologetic, then got handed to a different sales manager to finish the financial details (and who seemed pretty adept at not listening to what the customers were saying, himself).
We then sat outside waiting for the final details, and the sales manager that had already ticked off Cat came over, and delivered what I'd have to say was one of the slimiest and most unpleasant performances I've seen in many years: under the guise of allegedly apologising, he strenuously and repeatedly made every effort to put all the blame for this on Cat, and tried to portray himself as put-upon and - of course - always in the right: the old politico's trick of the apology that is no apology ("I'm sorry you feel like I kicked you in the nuts").
I'm very proud to say that Cat kept her head, and was quite civil, without accepting an inch of this nonsense, and kept pushing back at him quite directly, without ever being unduly abusive or excessive. It's fortunate that the original salesman came over and finished the details off tho, as I was at the point of becoming confrontational with him - the way the 'apology' had deteriorated, he was essentially calling her a liar, which isn't something I'm going to sit still for.
As it is, I think we both somewhat regret that we hadn't just torn the whole deal up and walked away ... but at least the car is very pleasant, and should be large enough for the comfort of our future guests.
Cat dropped the rental at Budget (where it had cost us an arm and a leg for rental), and caught a taxi to the Honda agency, where she'd been told the car would be ready at 3 o'clock. She was apparently sat down, and essentially ignored for a couple of hours, without being told what was going on or why the delay (or how long the delay would be), and no sign of any loaner. At that point she phoned me, fairly upset, & I arranged to catch a taxi out there and pick up her and the car, and deal with the car yard myself, as she was out of all patience with them.
She then called back shortly thereafter, having left the lot because one of the sales managers had approached her in an unpleasantly aggressive manner and, in the guise of apologising, tried to make her feel angry or bad (I guess as a way of feeling justified in the way they'd treated her). Fortunately rather than losing it with him, she just left the lot, and waited for me on the next sidestreet.
After I picked her up and went back to the yard (I had an internal debate about just telling them to stuff it & walking away from the deal - but the practical problems that that would have created were too great), I dealt with the salesman we'd originally dealt with, who was very apologetic, then got handed to a different sales manager to finish the financial details (and who seemed pretty adept at not listening to what the customers were saying, himself).
We then sat outside waiting for the final details, and the sales manager that had already ticked off Cat came over, and delivered what I'd have to say was one of the slimiest and most unpleasant performances I've seen in many years: under the guise of allegedly apologising, he strenuously and repeatedly made every effort to put all the blame for this on Cat, and tried to portray himself as put-upon and - of course - always in the right: the old politico's trick of the apology that is no apology ("I'm sorry you feel like I kicked you in the nuts").
I'm very proud to say that Cat kept her head, and was quite civil, without accepting an inch of this nonsense, and kept pushing back at him quite directly, without ever being unduly abusive or excessive. It's fortunate that the original salesman came over and finished the details off tho, as I was at the point of becoming confrontational with him - the way the 'apology' had deteriorated, he was essentially calling her a liar, which isn't something I'm going to sit still for.
As it is, I think we both somewhat regret that we hadn't just torn the whole deal up and walked away ... but at least the car is very pleasant, and should be large enough for the comfort of our future guests.
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