I remember when as a child, we had our fireplace mantel full of Christmas cards we received. Not only was the mantel full, but we had at least one wall, and usually more, filled with Christmas cards. Then when I had my own place, it was the same way. We had cards from friends, and family, we may only see once every year or so. These cards would be full of update messages, and imparted a genuine desire to keep in touch with each other. They came from all over. I received one from my older cousin who was stationed in Okinawa., I was probably about 10 then. (Off the subject a little but this reminds me of one of my favorite memories) He came home between Thanksgiving and Christmas. He came to my school to pick me up, in his dress blue uniform. It was quite a thrill when you are only 10 for a real Marine to come get you out of school to spend the day with you. But back to the Christmas cards. I look around now and I got one. From my insurance agent. Granted my extended family and friends are dwindling. Spread out far and wide. We, the younger generation have just gone our separate ways. If we see each other at all it is when one of our relatives die. But because of riffs between some of the older relatives, some of my cousins refuse to attend the funerals of these elder relatives. So the Christmas card would have still been a good way to keep in touch. Several of them have moved around several times. I don’t have any of their addresses. And I suppose they have lost mine. Some of them have prospered way beyond my means, and probably think they are too good to communicate with me. When we do see each other, on those rare funeral occasions, we still have fun talking and reminiscing. But the ones I really have to blame is the CARD COMPANIES, and the UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE. They have pretty much priced the average Joe out of the Christmas card season. We could get enough cards to send out to 40 or 50 people for what it costs for about 5 cards or less now. We could mail about 8 or 9 cards for the price of one now. Then you have the Card Companies making their cards the right size but once you put them in the envelope, the USPS has this little fee for cards that don’t fit through the sorter. Much of the time it is because the card would fit but once inside the envelope it is too large by maybe a 1/32 of an inch, and has to be hand sorted. Enough about the card situation. Let’s remember the real reason for Christmas. CHRIST. Whether you consider him your SAVIOR, A PROPHET, or whatever. For Christians HE is the beginning, of our salvation, To others he may be someone else. Either way his birth. (whenever that may have been) we celebrate HIS Birth on this CHIRSTmas day. I still miss the cards. But I still Have CHRIST. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL That Is How I See It, between Views: 415
Tag: USPS
NASCAR Sponsors
Before I begin let me say I know about competition in the business world. Advertising is what drives the business. But now with NASCAR losing more and more sponsors, shouldn’t their be limits set. Winston was the Corporate Sponsor, (the main sponsor who buys the naming rights), for 32 years, (1971-2003) Winston Cup rang in all NASCAR fans ears. Although they were not allowed to advertise their own product on racing cars, they continued to just use the name WINSTON CUP, still the name was linked with cigarettes. With R.J Reynolds owning the naming rights, non R.J. Reynolds cigarettes were not allowed to sponsor cars. This was before the ban of CIGARETTE advertising from being on Racing vehicles. From 2004 to 2007, Nextel held the rights and a special exception had to be made to allow Cingular/AT&T to run out their contracts. Beginning in 2008 Sprint has been the naming rights owner. What we end up with is in reality advertising censorship. Verizon’s sponsorship is up and will take their approximately $17 million dollar motorsport budget to the IndyCar series. This because of a clause in the naming rights contract that prohibits any company competes with SPRINT from sponsoring a car. I understand that because we are not talking pennies when we talk about naming rights. But let’s look at other sides. CRAFTSMAN sponsored the truck series for years. Yet I saw other wrenches being used. I think I even saw a SnapOn sticker somewhere. Should not all trucks have used CRAFTSMAN tools. No other names like on tool boxes, etc. The Corporate Sponsor’s name is the most prominent name. Just as SPRINT is the prominent name. To tell you the truth I didn’t even realize VERIZON sponsored a car. If the USPS (United States Postal Service) were to become the Title Sponsor, we would lose UPS (United Parcel Service), and FED-X. I know I’ve been all around the subject. Now to the point. In this economy owners are scampering to find sponsors to keep their cars competitive. We have less cars trying to qualify. Less cars means less competition. Less competition means less interest, etc. I can give you an excellent example of sponsorship. I played Softball and coached softball for many years. Our city has a population of about 15,000 people, counting the children. At one time we had; I want to say about 7-9 men’s leagues. Women had 5-7 leagues. Each men’s league had 7-10 teams. Each women’s league had 5-7 teams. We had no problem finding businesses to sponsor our teams. They paid our league fees and bought us shirts. Sometimes they paid for us to play in tournaments. As time went on our league fees went up. Now we are lucky to have 4 men’s league with maybe 5 team each. The ladies are way down too. Now we buy our own shirts with the sponsor’s name on it, and have to pay our individual memberships, and usually make up the difference for team sponsors. Ours is not that we have a Title sponsor. It is the cost has gone up so much, business is down and can no longer afford this little gesture of community involvement. Big business is in the same boat. Why handicap the racing teams by eliminating sponsors. We have what 5-6 Cell phone companies that even if they could afford to sponsor a car is barred from doing so. Less sponsors, less cars, etc. Many of the cars are using multi main sponsors for different races. Can NASCAR afford the loss of revenue? That Is How I See It. PS. Excuse my rambling this is a hard subject for me to put across. Views: 145
Postage Rates
This is a classic. What do you do if you own a business that is dying. Dying due to competition that is offering the same basic service for a much, much lower cost. Many of us use email to correspond with one another. We pay our bills online. We send our Christmas, Birthday cards, etc. Electronically. To stay in business we would make necessary cutbacks. That means like most business we close our less profitable outlets or manufacturing sites. We lay off people. We cut back on benefits. I don’t like any of these things, but that is what is really happening in the business world. The United States Postal Service is still a needed service, not just so much as it once was. I have not seen any of the aforementioned steps being taken. They are saying they will stop Saturday delivery. But they have not said anything about the employee’s pay being cut for the extra day off. We know that the pay scale for postal employees has always been higher than in the private sector. The Benefits better, the retirement better. Good for the employees. As long as the USPS can afford to pay all this, fine. But looking to the long term. If I own an automobile dealership, and I charge more than other dealers of like vehicles. Where would you go? Pay more at my dealership, or go across the street, and buy the lower priced vehicle. What do I do. The USPS says we’ll charge more and make up the difference. Now they don’t have to have as many customers, to maintain their profit. Meanwhile the guy across the street is selling more units at less cost per unit, but is making a larger bottom line profit, due to his increased volume. They even have unknown cost to customers. How many of you have mailed a birthday card only to find out you had insufficient postage. Why? Because the envelope is 1/16 of inch larger than allowed thus incurring a ‘SPECIAL HANDLING” charge. This means the card didn’t fit through the sorter, and someone had to actually pick it up to put in the bag. So is the answer keep raising prices. Or lower the prices and increase volume. That Is How I See It. Views: 105
