Tag: corporate-america

Pre-inaugural Chum

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Although Monday’s are usually quiet news days, perhaps the hoopla tomorrow is churning it out:

  • From the “Brands That Live and Die” Department: The NY Times is reporting that even though the Sharper Image stores have closed, the brand is living on. Specifically, the new owners of the brand are using it for new innovative, although cheaper, electronics. Other brands aren’t so lucky. A local franchiser is closing most of the Southern California Applebee’s, including those in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, and Santa Clarita. Another bane of the mall, Libby Lu, is also closing their locations. I’ve always had a grudge against Libby Lu, as they took over the GameKeeper location at the Northridge Mall.
  • From the “Feeling the Pain of the Recession” Department: Many other groups are feeling the pain of the recession. The LA Times has an interesting article on one such group: gardeners. It seems local service providers such as gardeners, housekeepers, and pool cleaners are often hit hardest during a recession — and they are the ones that can often ill afford such a hit. There’s another group being hurt by the recession: Bush-administration appointees. Normally, when an administration leaves office the appointees can count on jobs in the DC area at local corporations and lobbyists. But the tightened job market is making those jobs harder to come by, and so these folks may have to look elsewhere.
  • From the “Perhaps The Expectations Are Too High” Department: I know that everyone is excited about the change of administrations tomorrow, but let’s not elevate the man to patriarch status until he has earned it. Even our great leaders didn’t come into office with such high expectations (and that includes the man of the hour, Abe Lincoln). But I’m already seeing movements to rename Delmar Blvd in St. Louis as Obama Blvd, and even CNN is indicating that everyone expects Obama inauguration speech to be carved in marble. I admit, he is doing some interesting bipartisan actions — even going so far as to consult with his election opponent, but let’s not raise the expectations so high he can never meet them. We should, after all, be used to low expectations.
  • From the “Moving Day” Department: And speaking of low expectations, how about those Bushes? Seriously, one thing that has always interested me is the logistics of moving one occupant out and one in on the same day. It appears that that the Bushes have been smart here, or at least Laura has. Starting in the summer, Laura Bush started moving out of the White House, completing the move of personal belongings from Camp David over Christmas. The only things really left for President and Mrs. Bush are their personal belongings and luggage for the last day. Of course, they will leave a legacy…
  • From the “They’re Dieing to Get In” Department: Speaking of legacies… There is an interesting legacy in the Santa Monica Canyons: The Marquez Cemetary. The LA Times has an interesting article today on how the family is attempting to restore the cemetary and open it to the public.
  • From the “Read a Good Book” Department: If you are at all like me, you love a good bookstore. Especially used book stores. Ever wonder how they are faring these days? There’s a good article in the Daily News on A&M Book Cellars in Canoga Park (website), a used-book store that has been around 24 years. The secret of their success: don’t change. It reminds me of another favorite used book store: Cliff’s in Pasadena.
Share

Finding the Right Words

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Share

Ain’t That The Chum?

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Some accumulated news chum for the week:

  • From the “Where Do We Go From Here?” Department: This is mostly for bdot, who I seem to recall has a soft space for this place. The LA Times has a nice article today on where the Mt. Calvary Monastary will go next. The spiritual retreat was destroyed in the recent Tea fire in Monticito, and the monks are contemplating its future in a fire area, in light of the aging of the monastic order’s members.
  • From the “Pappy Parker’s Noodley Appendage” Department: The LA Times has a nice “Column 1” piece (which they rarely do anymore) about a former Bob’s Big Boy in Alhambra that has been converted to a noodle restaurant. The founder always loved Bob’s, and when the Alhambra location closed, purchased it for his noodle restaurant. In homage, however, he has retained a Big Boy statue, and pays $1/year to license it. That reminds me… I need to go out to Burbank, home of one of the original restaurants (still operating) designed by Wayne McAllister.
  • From the “And The Economy Keeps Rolling Down…” Department: Today brings news of both Nortel Networks and Gottschalks filing for bankruptcy. Closer to home, we’re seeing a victim of the collapse of the auto industry: Superior Industries is closing their Van Nuys Factory next to the Van Nuys Flyaway. 290 workers will lose their jobs. Superior supplies aluminum wheels to Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Seat, Skoda, Subaru, Suzuki, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.
  • From the “You Knew It Was Coming” Department: Come the end of March, WaMu will be history, its brand replaced by Chase. Chase plans to invest $300 million in refurbishing and renaming the 708 California branches and another $75 million to open 20 more this year. The Chase logo will also appear on 1,900 ATMs across the state by the end of the first quarter. Of course, as with the side effects of the auto industry, this cost California jobs: both at the Pleasanton and San Francisco operations centers, as well as earlier cutback at the loan operations departments in Chatsworth. Chase said it will honor the free checking WaMu offered to existing clients. For now, customers can also continue to use their WaMu checks and debit cards. Dimon said the company is studying how it will alter or combine the product offerings of the two banks.
  • From the “10101010 10111000: The TV Series” Department: There’s more information coming out about the push to delay the DTV switch. Yes, the coupon program has run out of money, and there’s no quick fix… but there are costs to the delay as well, both in the electricity for operating two transmitters, the staffs coordinating the switch, etc. Quite interesting to see the background. However, in some markets the switch is already starting: On Monday in St. Louis, KNLC Analog 24 will go all digital, freeing its analog channel for use by KMOV Analog 4’s digital channel, which is now on Digital 56. The article notes how boxes will need to rescan for signals, which makes sense for us but will probably confuse most folks. As this transition comes closer, I’m even more thankful I have DirecTV, although I’m curious whether DirecTV will ever broadcast some of the Digital subchannels that are now available in local markets.
  • From the “He’ll Have Pie With That” Department: Wednesday’s paper brings news of the death of Don Callender, the man responsible for bringing us the food of his mother, Marie… especially her pies. Waistlines will stop their expansion for one minute in his honor. Even after selling Marie Callender’s he remained in the business: in fact, the day after he died his Jackalope Ranch restaurant in Indio, Calif. opened.
  • From the “Secret Asian Man” Department: Alas, Number 6 has died. Star of Danger Man, Secret Agent, and The Prisoner, he was one of those great actors. I remember watching the Prisoner when KCET ran it in the 1980s, and having intense discussions about it in the UCLA Computer Club. I just hope that the recent post from the mayor_of_tv about the planned remake of The Prisoner TV Series didn’t send him to his grave prematurely. Haven’t heard about it. Later this year, AMC is planning to present a six-hour miniseries adaptation of “The Prisoner”. All together now: But why?

    ETA: From the “That’s Two” Department: We also lost Ricardo Montelban. 80’s TV folk will instantly go “Da Plane, Da Plane”; SF folks will go “Kahhhhhn”. But that’s two. Who’s next in our SF actor trifecta?

Share

Catchin’ Up On The Chum

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Yes, the conference is past, and so it is time to throw some news chum in the waters. Of course, times being what they are, this chum is economic. Will it sink or swim? Only you can tell.

  • From the “Iris Lucerne” Department: Back in the 1970s, during the last economic crisis, the Ralphs grocery chain introduced “Plain Wrap”. Well, guess what? Store-brands are hot again. Dollar sales of store brands increased 10% during the 52 weeks before Nov. 1, compared with a 3% gain for branded products, according to the Nielsen market research company. Store brands now account for nearly 22% of products sold at the grocery, up from 20% a year ago, Nielsen found. At Kroger (now the parent of Ralphs), store brands account for 26% of grocery sales. I can certainly attest to buying store brands, especially from Trader Joes and Fresh and Easy, who are primarily store-brand products.
  • From the “Would You Like an Ad on the Side?” Department: Another article in the NY Times talks about the difficulty social networking sites such as Facebook are having with advertising. It seems that most folks ignore the text or banner ads, and only pay attention to specially crafted sites. I don’t know how this has affected LJ advertising, but it could explain some of the sponsored communities that have been showing up.
  • From the “Smokum Peace Pipe. Tobacco. Rot Lungs.” Department: The chief of the Unkechaug Nation in New York has vowed to keep selling cigarettes, even in the face of a lawsuit from the City of New York that claims that nation — the closest reservation to New York City — has become a “tax evasion haven” and a drain on the city’s coffers. New York City officials say millions of cartons of untaxed cigarettes are sold every year by Poospatuck retailers to bootleggers who smuggle them into the city to resell for about $5 a pack, not the $8 or $9 charged by New York retailers who pay the state and city taxes of $4.25 a pack. Where’s Stan Freberg when we need him?
  • From the “I Get A Charge Out Of This” Department: The Federal Reserve on Thursday will vote on sweeping reform of the credit card industry that would ban practices such as retroactively increasing interest rates at will and charging late fees when consumers are not given a reasonable amount of time to make payments. Among the many provisions is a ban on raising interest rates on existing balances unless the customer was 30 days or more late in paying the minimum. Other circumstances in which a rate change would be allowed would be if the card had a variable rate or a promotional rate that was set to expire. Banks would also not be able to treat a payment as late if the customer had not been given a fair amount of time to make that payment. The proposal would also dictate how credit card companies should apply customers’ payments that exceed the minimum required each month. When different annual percentage rates apply to different balances on the same card, banks would be prohibited from applying the entire amount to the balance with the lowest rate. Many card issuers do that so that debts with the highest interest rates linger the longest, thereby costing the consumer more.
  • From the “This Mall Is Going To The Dogs” Department: More and more stores, according to the LA Times, are allowing dogs in the store. Every store is different, and the rules often vary depend on the size of the dog, but the bottom line is: they would probably rather clean up after an accident than lose a sale, especially these days.
Share

Banking on History

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Today’s announcement that Wachovia has spured Citi and is having a shotgun wedding with Wells Fargo instead has started me musing on some banking memories. Let’s start with the first ones in the news.

Wachovia, of course, was unknown in California until they purchased World Savings and Loan. I remember World Savings well from the nice two-story building they had with the globe in front of it at Wilshire and San Vicente, where I had a savings account in my high school year. They later tore that building down and put up an ugly high-rise. Now, as for the suitor, Wells Fargo Bank, there are more memories. The first is of Crocker National Bank. Crocker was where I had my first checking account — at their Wilshire and Stoner branch, near my parent’s accounting office. Remnants of that account still exist, for my Wells Fargo Credit card can be traced to that account. I also remember that Crocker had multiple branches in Westwood, and that I usually used the one at Kinross and Gayley near UCLA. Crocker was merged into Wells Fargo in 1986. Also in Westwood was an office of United California Bank, which if I remember was later renamed into First Interstate Bank (there was a second UCB (formed from the merger of Sanwa and Tokai Banks) that was later merged into Bank of the West). In 1996, Wells Fargo took over First Interstate Bank.

The previously bank acquisition in the news was Chase’s purchase of Washington Mutual. WaMu, as we all know, had previously swallowed two major Los Angeles banks: Great Western Bank (remember the John Wayne statue in front of their office on Wilshire Blvd near Beverly Hills), and HF Ahmanson’s Home Savings and Loan, which had these beautiful marble buildings with detailed mosaics of California life on the front of them. One of those buildings was donated, and is now a satellite student store at CSUN. I’ll note that Home Savings swallowed Coast Savings.

Before that we had Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch. Most folks think of BofA as a North Carolina Bank, but that’s only because NationsBank took over San Francisco-based BofA a number of years before, and took over the name. BofA was originally Bank of Italy in San Francisco (and used American Building Maintenance for their first janitorial contract–I know this because my dad was heavily involved with ABMI in the 1960s and 1970s). BofA had also swallowed a major Los Angeles Bank: Security Pacific National Bank. Who remembers SPNB?

Those following the election should know that John McCain was involved with the Keating 5. The Keating 5 refers to Charles Keating, who was the head of Lincoln Savings and Loan. Now, I never had an account at Lincoln, but I do remember that their building across from the Fashion Square Mall in Sherman Oaks used to have a gigantic display on Abraham Lincoln that LAUSD used to take students to see. That building is now a Downey Savings. I guess it must be cursed.

Where did I have my first savings account? Centinela Valley Savings and Loan, which I don’t think exists anymore. It was the office on Manchester Blvd, just west of Falmouth in Playa Del Rey.

OK, so what are your banking memories?

Share

Politics and Poker – The News Chum Edition

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Politics and Poker, Politics and Poker
Playing for a pot that’s mediocre
Politics and Poker running neck and neck
If politics seems more predictable..
That’s because usually
You can stack the deck

Today’s news chum deals with the political and economic (hence the reference to poker) arena. And just like with poker, just when you think you are winning the game…

  • From the “And The Only People Who Make Money Are The Ones Making The Signs” Department: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that J.P. Morgan has struck a deal to take over Washington Mutual. While the exact structure of the transaction wasn’t immediately known, J.P. Morgan is expected to acquire Washington Mutual’s deposits and branches, as well as other operations. The deal isn’t expected to result in any hit to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s bank-insurance fund, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. But it’s likely that another arm of government would have to pick up the tab. Some analysts have worried that a WaMu failure could cost more than $20 billion. In other WaMu news, it will now cost you $5 to cash a check on a WaMu account at WaMu if you don’t have account there.
  • From the “But You Said You Could Convince Them” Department: Remember today how a bipartisan deal over the bailout had supposedly been hammered out before the “big meeting” — the deal bringing together the Senate and the House, the Republicans and the Democrats. Remember how Bush called McCain and Obama together to convince their parties to support the deal. Well, Democrats are behind the deal. But House Republicans are balking. Wasn’t it McCain that called for bipartisan leadership on the issue? Let’s see if he can bring his party along. It should be noted it is only the House Republicans that are balking; the Senate Republicans as well as both House and Senate Democrats agree with the revised proposal.
  • From the “Paranoia” Department: I’m finding it interesting how cynical the Bush administration has left the supporters on the other side. I’m seeing more and more people that think elections are going to be suspended, that training some troops to support NorthCom means were going to have a military coup. Have the bad actions of the Bush administration led people to doubt the fundamentals of our political system? Perhaps I’m naive, but we’ve been in dire straights before… and elections and campaigns have gone on. We’ve had power-hungry presidents before… and elections have gone on and our system has righted itself. We must have faith in our system of government folks.
Share

Unrelated Observations on the News

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

A late lunch today due to a late meeting, but here are some observations from scanning the headlines:

Share

Business News Chum

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Some business stuff in the news:

  • Conoco-Phillips Selling Stations. Conoco-Phillips, better known on in the west as the purveyors of “76” gasoline (formerly Union 76, then Unocal), is selling its company owned stations to PetroSun Fuel of Seattle. PetroSun planned major upgrades in product offerings to focus on the more profitable convenience store side of the business. The company will emulate upscale and Asian convenience store chains such as Famima that focus on high-quality fresh foods sold in clean, stylish surroundings. They are working on the concept of a small grocery store that sells gasoline rather than a gasoline station that sells food and other items. They expect gasoline to account for no more than 40% to 45% of total sales compared with 75% for the typical convenience store-gas station. It is unclear what the “brand” of these stations will be, and if one’s Conoco-Phillips-76 card will still be good at them.
  • No More Double Coupons At Vons. Vons (which the NoCal folks know as Safeway) is joining Ralphs in curtailing their double coupon policy. Basically, they are capping the value of doubled coupons at $1, and coupons above $1 are at face value. I remember the doubling wars, when stores were doubling and tripling everything under the sun, as well as accepting any coupon under the sun. They claim they are lowering prices as a result, but I doubt that.
  • Now All They Need Is The Mud. In response to the latest lawsuit results, Mattel is trying to shut down production of Bratz dolls. Specifically, Mattel attorneys said they intended to file an injunction to stop MGA from making more Bratz dolls in the wake of Tuesday’s verdict, which held MGA, Chief Executive Isaac Larian and subsidiary MGA Hong Kong liable for copyright infringement and awarded $10 million in damages.
  • Just Use Your Seat Cushion. Jazz Airlines, a regional carrier of Air Canada, to save money, is removing all the life vests from their plane. Evidiently regulations permit them to just use flotatation devices if they never go more than 50 minutes from the coast. Jazz is flying Dash-8 with 50 seats, and the move will save them about 50lbs per flight.
Share