Having fun thinking about what products (chewing gum, nail polish, hair conditioner) I would endorse aside, lately the CONSUMERIST me has been tweaked by too many bad experiences with products and services which translates on the sales floor level to clerks who are jerks and on the corporate level to making hay while the sun continues to set.
At a time when we all need to be stimulating our ever failing economy (We all know those unemployment rates do not reflect those who ran out of unemployment and are now loosing everything they ever earned), the effort of dealing with these businesses (including one increasingly shitty "non-profit" gym) is to the point where it hardly seems worth the time and energy to complain to them (as if someone who earns their living there would care) or even the Consumer Bureau, which also has unpaid volunteers answering the phones these days, taking a guess at what you oughta do.
Instead, since the personal is political, what I have to say about these experiences to anyone who will listen (including strangers I encounter here, there, and everywhere) has become my high art of putting them out of business (or at least making informed and wary customers of the next sucker who goes in to buy.) Yes, my frustration and anger has become that of the bitter complainer so BUYER BEWARE.
I haven't purchased a thing besides underwear from an indoor shopping mall for a few years now! The last time I went to an indoor shopping mall I felt henpecked by fake phony clerks who kept asking me store after store "How are you today?" Never had more people staged a concern over my well being and as a gambit to sell me something.
I felt for all these people desperate to make a living and keep their jobs while on commission, but I left remembering why I mail order.
I also remembered being a clerk myself (back when it was an art in itself) and one never pretended to be overly familiar with a stranger or forgot they there to serve!
After you buy (and spend all that time and money on transportation) to get there, the product falls apart. Surprise! Made in China! So you call the store and someone of the phone says "Can you come in with your receipt?" I did that recently, spending over an hour to get back to the place, and the manager of the store stared at me and denied anyone ever said they would fix the problem, as if it were out of his pocket! It's almost as if they count on you NOT bringing back products because it's too much effort. That means manufacturers are not being held to excellence. Instead they figure how much shabby they can get away with!
Oh, but they want you to take that SURVEY on your receipt so corporate can find out if you were happy with your last visit.
Speaking of shabby, service in the stores seems over unless it's a very expensive store indeed. I think I can speak for you too! Aren't we sick of walking miles of isles trying to find products or someone to ask for help or direction, rude employees at the gym (who aren't even pretending they see the correlation between your membership and their job (Are they talking down to me because I'm not fit?) and products that fall apart (Wore those tennis shoes twice before the insides came unsewn and rubbed blisters into my feet) or that you cannot try on in a store (No dressing rooms? Guess at what bra size you wear?) and are not returnable (Didn't you see the sign?), is at an all time high as our economy continues to fall apart.
Writing this has made me feel (just slightly) better!
C Christine Trzyna 2011 All Rights Reserved including Internet Rights and International Rights
5/20/11
WHAT WOULD JACKIE DO? by SHELLY BRANCH and SUE CALLAWAY
An Inspired Guide to Distinctive Living.
This book was interesting to me because of Jackie's life as a literary editor, but also First Lady, and icon. Like Andy Warhol, I suspect Jackie was, from an early age, extremely aware of herself as a product and of marketing.
Page 18 Scoring Big with Courtly Correspondence.
"A woman with an erudite aura writes a main. She knows that words that flicker on a screen may land her a job interview, even a few good dates. But she also gets that words flowing directly from a pen are apt to deliver more - if less immediately tangible - riches.
"Jackie was a model correspondent. She used her trademark stationary (light blue sheets with embossed white lettering) and loopy script to curry favors, charm lovers, maneuver out of tight spots, and evoke her famous wrath - unusually in effusive fashion.
"Most people reserve a good handwriting job for more formal affairs these days. That is a mistake. An ambidextrous Jackie would dash off an eight-page letter of sympathy ... then shift to more intellectual prose with lofty-minded dear hearts such as former Deputy of Defense Secretary Roswell Gilpatric."
Page 19
"To mix it up and save money in the process Jackie used postcards from museums, as well as letterhead from high end hotels (Japan's Half Moon Hotel was once a favorite source of sheets). These helped to project a "you-are-there" in-the-moment tone - the perfect vibe for earnest scribes."
This book was interesting to me because of Jackie's life as a literary editor, but also First Lady, and icon. Like Andy Warhol, I suspect Jackie was, from an early age, extremely aware of herself as a product and of marketing.
Page 18 Scoring Big with Courtly Correspondence.
"A woman with an erudite aura writes a main. She knows that words that flicker on a screen may land her a job interview, even a few good dates. But she also gets that words flowing directly from a pen are apt to deliver more - if less immediately tangible - riches.
"Jackie was a model correspondent. She used her trademark stationary (light blue sheets with embossed white lettering) and loopy script to curry favors, charm lovers, maneuver out of tight spots, and evoke her famous wrath - unusually in effusive fashion.
"Most people reserve a good handwriting job for more formal affairs these days. That is a mistake. An ambidextrous Jackie would dash off an eight-page letter of sympathy ... then shift to more intellectual prose with lofty-minded dear hearts such as former Deputy of Defense Secretary Roswell Gilpatric."
Page 19
"To mix it up and save money in the process Jackie used postcards from museums, as well as letterhead from high end hotels (Japan's Half Moon Hotel was once a favorite source of sheets). These helped to project a "you-are-there" in-the-moment tone - the perfect vibe for earnest scribes."
5/19/11
ISAAC ASIMOV quotation
"If the doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I'd type a little faster." - Isaac Asimov
5/7/11
DEBORAH TANNEN Quotation
"Each person's life is lived as a series of conversations."
- Deborah Tannen
- Deborah Tannen
5/2/11
LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK FAIR AT USC : CHANGE HARD TO TAKE REVIEW BY CHRISTINE TRZYNA
After 15 years at UCLA, the LA TIMES BOOK FAIR, moved to University of Southern California (USC) campus this past weekend, and as I waited in line to attend Panel Discussions by book authors (memoirists) and Publishing Industry Professionals (The Book as a form is not dead but new innovative Reader forms may be the future), I talked with other attendees who told me the Bloggers were posting scathing reviews. My review is scathing ... before I heap praise.
LOGISTICS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT
The LA TIMES itself seems to have kept a mystery as to why the fair was moved to the USC campus from UCLA. I imagined the it was budgetary as so many decisions in this terrible economy seem to be.
Speculation in line was that USC is all flat ie easy walking. However, THE FAIR WAS TOO SPREAD OUT TO WALK, made more difficult by getting lost and wasting time going through the Children's area and Cooking, which was the area where the SHUTTLES PROVIDED BY TARGET dropped you off. I got tired quickly. I'd gone to Union Station and from there took the shuttle, but coming and going the trip seemed to be tedious and too long. The shuttles had only one drop off and pick up point, so that made me cross the campus again in order to go.
THE MAPS PRINTED BY THE PAPER WERE LOUSY; Buildings were unnamed if there was no panel discussion held there which did not help, and buildings were not even colored the same on all maps, so you could not orient easily with two people looking at the maps at the same time! There seemed to be few volunteers identifiable to ask for directions, and I got confusing directions from some of the Festival-T shirted employees that I saw. I walked around talking to myself, hoping someone would pick up on my confusion and direct me with ease.
So attending Panel Discussions became fraught with anxiety because I didn't have the confidence that I could make it from one point to the next. I even wondered if the festival was spread out to make it difficult to attend one panel discussion after another. Was it intended to make me waste time or entrap me to buy food? I NEVER DID FIND THE GREEN/ECO EXHIBITORS which I wanted very much to see.
That I got there at Sunday after 10 and there were still tickets - Telling!
I attended two panel discussions and THEY WERE TERRIFIC. The audiences (mostly writers I swear!) were also terrific. I don't know when last I experiences such an exhibit of intelligence in both authors and publishers and audience members and moderators. The questions were insightful and interesting and so were the responses!
Other things I noticed: Many radio stations broadcasting, Ben and Jerry's ice cream did the most extravagant, energetic, and generous marketing, with the cutest young men and women with the biggest smiles handing out little containers of new flavors of ice cream. Cliff Bars gave out too - but so oriented to children that I felt sneaky taking one, sans children.
Also noticed, the USC stage, which featured genuine USC students performing, singing unaccompanied, playing the Stand Up Base. A home grown touch, which fairly advertised the most expensive and prestigious university in Los Angeles County.
C Christine Trzyna 2011 All Rights Including Internet and International Rights Reserved
LOGISTICS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT
The LA TIMES itself seems to have kept a mystery as to why the fair was moved to the USC campus from UCLA. I imagined the it was budgetary as so many decisions in this terrible economy seem to be.
Speculation in line was that USC is all flat ie easy walking. However, THE FAIR WAS TOO SPREAD OUT TO WALK, made more difficult by getting lost and wasting time going through the Children's area and Cooking, which was the area where the SHUTTLES PROVIDED BY TARGET dropped you off. I got tired quickly. I'd gone to Union Station and from there took the shuttle, but coming and going the trip seemed to be tedious and too long. The shuttles had only one drop off and pick up point, so that made me cross the campus again in order to go.
THE MAPS PRINTED BY THE PAPER WERE LOUSY; Buildings were unnamed if there was no panel discussion held there which did not help, and buildings were not even colored the same on all maps, so you could not orient easily with two people looking at the maps at the same time! There seemed to be few volunteers identifiable to ask for directions, and I got confusing directions from some of the Festival-T shirted employees that I saw. I walked around talking to myself, hoping someone would pick up on my confusion and direct me with ease.
So attending Panel Discussions became fraught with anxiety because I didn't have the confidence that I could make it from one point to the next. I even wondered if the festival was spread out to make it difficult to attend one panel discussion after another. Was it intended to make me waste time or entrap me to buy food? I NEVER DID FIND THE GREEN/ECO EXHIBITORS which I wanted very much to see.
That I got there at Sunday after 10 and there were still tickets - Telling!
I attended two panel discussions and THEY WERE TERRIFIC. The audiences (mostly writers I swear!) were also terrific. I don't know when last I experiences such an exhibit of intelligence in both authors and publishers and audience members and moderators. The questions were insightful and interesting and so were the responses!
Other things I noticed: Many radio stations broadcasting, Ben and Jerry's ice cream did the most extravagant, energetic, and generous marketing, with the cutest young men and women with the biggest smiles handing out little containers of new flavors of ice cream. Cliff Bars gave out too - but so oriented to children that I felt sneaky taking one, sans children.
Also noticed, the USC stage, which featured genuine USC students performing, singing unaccompanied, playing the Stand Up Base. A home grown touch, which fairly advertised the most expensive and prestigious university in Los Angeles County.
C Christine Trzyna 2011 All Rights Including Internet and International Rights Reserved
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