Rob's thought for the day........stores ??

I forget who mentioned it, but there is the "I need to see it in person" factor at play. I just replaced the 3" 12V DC fan in the power supply of one of my computers. The ability to run to the local Radio Shack,find it and open the box to compare everything before buying.

I probably paid 25% more for that ability this evening. The fact that I got it this evening is a bonus.

Jim.
 
Well Brent there goes any leverage you ever had...(lol) not like theres a bunch of woodworking gals here lined up singing your praises. ;)

But i would add you a very lucky man.......but there aint no fooling your misses if something is wrong with something : )
You still on the hook for that table Bob or no Bob :)

Now Sharon how about running clinics for our wives to get them up to speed. Btw on the shopping thing i think my wife would so agree with you and Arts wife.

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You guys are too sweet. I think your wives are the lucky ones.

The table can wait..it's on to the worm farm, the green house, the front yard retaining walls, the garden barrier...oh my we are going to be busy the next few months :thumb:

WORM farm?? you guys do that much fishun or have folks looking to buy bait from you????:)
 
Larry i believe Brent is looking at fertilizer for them greens he is planning on cultivating in them greenhouse.

Dont know what greens them might be? ???? though i think he is going green thumbs on us and we lost another woodworker to the other half of the lv store. : )
Now were he living in Canada i might think he is preparing for his new source of pension income. But he will have to wait for a particular party to make it to power then and that could be a while:)
But them rabbits in Nevada are going to be celebrating and eating well I can see them doing a jig when Bob arrived to speed up the process. lol


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so you raise worms for the castings??? what do you feed the worms and how many you need to get enough castings for the vegs.. i would think its way to hot and dry where you folks are???
 
so you raise worms for the castings??? what do you feed the worms and how many you need to get enough castings for the vegs.. i would think its way to hot and dry where you folks are???

Well, we actually don't get that hot in the summer. Even though we are a desert...the temps are relatively mild (usually mid-80's). So according to Brent we will feed them all our leftover vegetable scraps from the kitchen (like we'll ever find any of those :rofl:). They apparently like to digest cardboard, so I'm sure we'll have an endless supply of that from all the Brown visits
 
Must tell you a quick story Rob. While it was going on I kept thinking of this thread. I am in the market for a harness for my team of Norwegian Fjords. I have harness for a team of Haflinger ponies (to small for the Fjords) and I have harness for Belgians (to large). I have called my local (within a 150 mile radius) and they are not familiar with Fjords and want to enlarge a Haflinger harness or shrink a Belgian harness (obviously I could do that with harness I have). I have two ponies to break this summer and they will utilize one set of the existing harness. Anyway while searching, I asked at a draft forum I visit about a specific tack shop I found online. Long story short, she started out in Washington and eventually created harness specifically sized for minis, donkeys, mules, Fjords, etc. She went about it like a tailor and proportioned the parts accordingly. Anyway, I call her. Have a very nice conversation but she is in her car and will call me later to solidify the deal. I eventually find out the harness man she worked with and makes all of her harness for her now still lives in Washington but she moved to Texas. She kept the Washington phone number due to number recognition. Long story short, she lives in Texas, operates a business on a Washington phone number and her partner lives and works in Washington. I make a good deal, ask her if she needs me to send a check or if she wants a credit card number. She says, "you don't owe me anything until the harness arrives at your home and you are happy with it". Then send me a check. I wanted a specific bridle, she suggested another style that she developed, I consented, she said, "if you find you don't like that bridle, call me, I'll send you the farm bridles and you throw those bridles in the box and send them back when the farm bridles get to you". Who does that today???? Well, I have a little over $800.00 worth of nylon draft horse harness, bridles and lines coming and I haven't paid a dime for them. She said, "until you are happy, they belong to me, when you are happy, pay for it and they belong to you!" That is how a brick and mortar store survives, it changes with the technology and times and bottom line, offers service. Go Janie at Chimacum Tack!
 
I used to raise some worms. It is actually a potentially profitable enterprise. We raised rabbits, the worm boxes were under the cages and the rabbit droppings were converted to castings by the worms. End result we got worms, rabbits and castings from one feeding.
 
In 1978 Myrna and I moved to Fallbrook, California. On my first visit into town I purchased some stuff at the local hardware store. (The store had been at the same location for something like 100 years.) I started to pay. I don't know how, but I left my billfold at home. I said that I would return for the merchandise and asked them to set it aside.

They said, "That's OK. Take it and pay us next time you are in town." You better believe---I purchased all of my hardware from them for the next 12 or 13 years that we lived there.

Enjoy,

JimB
 
First my background, I have lots of computer experience and also lots of retail experience. With that said I have read this thread and the very thoughtful replies. It made me think what would a possible retail outlet look like in the future. Try this on for size: We all hate going into a retail outlet where the 'clerk' knows even less about a product than we do! We all hate that when we ask a question we get some off the wall reply! So how about a retail store manned by 'clerks' but has in the store an online big screen to the 'expert' manned service center. You ask them the questions, they reply, and the now informed 'clerk' can get you the merchandise and show it to you. We get the touchy feely and the expertise all with an online flare! Wadda' ya' think! Russ
 
Russ i think your idea is excellent but the consumer and competition have put the squeeze on the cost structure such that the funding of expertise just aint there. Would be great to amortise the cost of the expert center across several stores but i suspect very quickly they would be the go to guys and they would not stick around long dealing with dummy joe public type questions that the store clerk could have answered and acted like a filter. THis is where i trully believe the cycle will turn in the future and mom and pop type stores albeit on the internet will have a place for sure. Just take Joe Woodworker selling veneers on the internet. He is essentially mom and pop and does a good job. http://www.joewoodworker.com/ He supplies product in a niche and has loads of info and competitive pricing but very knowledgeable and more than willing to interact even if you not buying from him. But the product is not a commodity like coke a cola or 2x4's.
 
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