Wait..Haven't We Heard This Story Before?

A story of note from the business world last week involved a global beverage company buying out a smaller competitor in order to avoid name brand confusion, even though many people believed the smaller company's product to be superior to that of the giant one. And while you may say, "Wait--we've talked about this already," hang on; I'm not talking about Dr Pepper at the moment, but Budweiser:

Anheuser-Bush InBev NV (ABI.BT), the world's biggest brewer, has acquired the rights to some Budweiser brand trademarks in Europe by striking a deal with a small Czech brewer, marking a small step forward in a long-running legal battle for global use of the Budweiser brand.

While I never sampled the smaller Budweiser that was bought out last week, my parents brought me some Budvar Budweiser--the last remaining barrier to Anheuser-Busch's exclusive ownership of the name--from a trip to the Czech Republic, and it's a far better beer than the one from St. Louis could ever dream of being.

I sure would like to see David beat Goliath in the corporate world again sometime...

The End of a Legend...and for No Good Reason

I can't tell you how upset I was to read this a few moments ago. From the Facebook group called "Support Dublin Dr Pepper" comes this horrible news:

As some of you may have noticed I had pulled this page for the past few weeks. I was asked to do so by the people at The Dublin Dr Pepper bottling company, as they were in negotiations with Dr Pepper/Snapple Corp/Cadbury. In lieu of the outcome of the court case I feel that it is time to open the page back up.

It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you the results of the case. A true Texas tradition has died. As of five o'clock central time The Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Co and Dublin Dr Pepper are no more. Dr Pepper/Snapple/Cadbury Companies won their case against our small bottler and have closed the plant in Dublin. They have graciously allowed the new museum and soda shop to remain open, but they will only be able to serve regular Dr Pepper sweetened with sugar; not the original recipe we all love.

I know that all of you will be affected by this outcome, but I can't even imagine the devastating affect it will have on my small town. I vow to NEVER buy a product made by any of these companies and pray that you will let them know exactly how you feel. As always, there is contact information on the Info page. Please pray for all of the newly unemployed Dublin bottler employees, and for Dublin, Texas.

Thank you for all of your support!

Corporate greed at its finest, ladies and gentlemen. I'll savor my last few sixers of Dublins that I bought the last time I was in Stephenville last month, but after that, I guess my weekly DP at Chick-fil-A will change over to something else; I'm not supporting this corporation in any way, shape or form.

UPDATE: More information can be found here; this article makes it appear that they settled, and Dublin probably caved a bit to avoid having the full corporate legal hammer fall on them. It still sucks, no matter how you slice it.

One More Run to the Border(s)

I've been aware for several weeks now that Borders Books and Music is downsizing, and that one of the casualties of this effort will be the huge store in Dallas at Preston and Royal. Seeing as how this is pretty close to my church, it used to be a regular stop on Sunday afternoons, especially because of its ginormous music department. Many an hour was spent at its listening stations, checking out the latest jazz offerings (and interesting-looking things in other genres as well).

So I stopped in again this morning for the first time in several years, in search of a possible bargain. And the first thing that struck me (besides how few other customers were in the store) was how small the music department had gotten; a good two-thirds of the area had been replaced with bookshelves. (And this was not simply a downsizing brought on by the store-closing sale, either; the bookshelves in question had permanent signage above them which indicated that the displays have been there for a while.) As for the bargains themselves? If there were some there, it was hardly worth the time to look, as any sense of order had long ago been abandoned, and it's not like they'd have employees going around reshelving everything at this point.

I've posted in the past* about the apparent downfall of the whole "bookstore as music store" idea, and it's only gotten worse since then. (Scroll down to the bottom section of the linked post, "A heads-up to the brick-and-mortars," to read my earlier thoughts on this subject.) Still, it was a good run while it lasted, and the timing was perfect; the departure of big chain music stores like Blockbuster Music, Tower Records and Virgin Megastore left a void that Barnes & Noble and Borders filled for a while, but the writing was on the wall the past several years when the bookstores shrunk their music departments down to bare bones.

Still, it was a Catch-22 of sorts for them; no doubt, it's expensive to keep physical CDs in stock at a store, but if they're not there (or if they cost considerably more than the same stores sell them for on their websites), people won't buy them, and they may not come in at all. For me, a trip to the local Barnes & Noble was a weekly ritual until they downsized their music department (replacing a lot of the music shelves with audiobooks, which don't seem to sell at all); it also means less business from me in their cafe, and I haven't even renewed my membership the past couple of years.

The recorded music business itself is also changing, with a lot of distribution taking place in the form of digital downloads. (And a lot of the music I've bought recently is of the indie variety that might never show up inside a Barnes & Noble or Borders in the first place.) Still, it would be nice to have a place that combined music purchasing with the social aspect of a bookstore; the Hear Music burning-bar concept trotted out by Starbucks a few years ago never really, took off, but I wonder if a bookstore that offered some sort of downloading machine into which customers could plug their iPods would be successful.

Still, on this day, I remember the years of the bookstore-as-CD-store, and they were good. It still surprises me that the Preston/Royal Borders is closing (it's the same location where former President Bush drew an overflow crowd to his book-signing just a few months ago), but the new Barnes & Noble that's catty-corner across the street evidently took a lot of its business away. I'm also glad that Borders isn't completely going away, and that the one in Watters Creek is among those being spared.

Do you have a favorite memory of buying music at a bookstore, or of the Preston/Royal Borders in general? Feel free to share in the comments.

Well, It Looks LIke Katz's Does Klose After All

I received some unfortunate news on Facebook from a friend who's a UT-Austin alumnus: Katz's Deli, the iconic Sixth Street restaurant known for being open all night (its slogan, "Katz's Never Kloses," is even reflected in its website), will be shuttered just after New Year's:

Katz's Deli, the longstanding popular restaurant on West Sixth Street, will shut its doors for good after more than three decades of being a 24-hour Austin icon.

The restaurant filed for bankruptcy in July after some difficulties with the property owners. Owner Marc Katz, considered relocating but has since changed his mind.

"I saw Brett Favre on your station this morning getting beat up," said Katz. "I think I'm going to quit while I'm ahead."

The 63-year-old was upbeat about his 31 years on Sixth Street. "It's a great time to leave," he said. "Reminds me of a gambler who leaves while he's winning."

I haven't been to Katz's in quite a few years, but I was turned onto it a long time ago by some UT friends, and it became a regular stop for a while when I was taking sax quartets to State Solo & Ensemble on an annual basis. Not only was it always open, but the food was really good and quite plentiful; I usually enjoyed a Reuben sandwich that was bursting at the seams with meat. It was probably as close to a New York deli as you could find in Texas.

They'll stay open until January 2. I don't know if I'll be out that way before then, but I'll definitely remember some good times.

Farewell to a Fun Old Tradition

On my way back to the college from dinner last night, I noticed that the Krispy Kreme on Central Expressway in Plano had closed. While I guess that wasn't a complete surprise, since I never really saw the parking lot full of cars on many occasions, it was still disappointing; it's nice to have that occasional treat nearby when you want it.

Today's Dallas Morning News made note of the closing and also mentioned a few other recent ones for the company:

The Krispy Kreme on Central Expressway in Plano shut down this week, the latest of three underperforming local stores to close, said spokesman Brian Little. The Irving store closed in June, he said, and the Frisco store on Preston Road closed earlier this month.

Oh noes! Not the Frisco store!!

So why would I be concerned about a donut shop that's over 20 miles from my house? Well, there was this thing called the Trifecta; it warranted many posts in the early days of this blog. It involved my three favorite food indulgences in one sitting: Chipotle, Krispy Kreme and Starbucks. The "rules" stated that the three had to be within walking distance of each other, which also helped to counterbalance the extra caloric intake. To my knowledge, there were at least two places in the state of Texas where a Trifecta could be done: Frisco, just to the north of Stonebriar Centre; and Round Rock, near the intersection of I-35 and what's now known as the SH 45 Toll Road. (The Round Rock setup carried the distinct advantage of having the Chipotle located quite a bit farther from the other two, whereas the Frisco walk was shorter.)

There was even a protocol as far as order was concerned: First, a normal burrito dinner was consumed at Chipotle. Then, we would walk over to the Krispy Kreme and Starbucks (which, in both places, were within rock-throwing distance of each other). Donuts would be procured, then taken over to Starbucks to be consumed in tandem with the coffee. The Starbucks portion was usually the longest and most relaxing part of what was always a great hang.

Now I'm sure that any member of the Food Police reading this blog would immediately harp on the unhealthiness of all this. My reply would be, "well, duhhh; that's why we only do it a few times a year." And this was true; it was generally part of a birthday celebration, with the honoree not having to pay for anything during the event. There were maybe four of us who did this on a regular basis, so it was a fairly infrequent occasion, since our birthdays are spread out during the year. (Not to mention that one of the guys, who preferred Panda Express to Chipotle, would take advantage of the Panda located right between the Starbucks and the Krispy Kreme in Frisco to have a "Chifecta" when his birthday came up.)

In the past few years, as life has gotten busier, the trips to Frisco became fewer and farther between (one friend and I figured we were at least two Trifectas behind apiece). In the meantime, the Round Rock Krispy Kreme closed and was replaced with a jewelry store (I'm assuming they didn't keep the drive-thru), so that option--usually taken advantage of on trips to State Solo and Ensemble--went away. And with the news of Frisco's closing, I guess that pretty much shuts the door on future Trifectas, unless we find somewhere else that we all happen to be where this delicious convergence takes place.

Incidentally, the linked article notes that the remaining DFW area Krispy Kremes are in good shape (including the original area location in south Arlington, home of many a stop after a Rangers game). The company is hoping to have these outlets purchased by a franchisee, and it would not be until then that any possible expansion would take place. (If that happens, I'd encourage them to build one in Firewheel, where a Trifecta would be within walking distance of my house. And make no mistake--I would likely walk if it were that close.)

They Do Chicken Right. Coupons? Not So Much...

A friend turned me onto a cool promotion today: KFC, in an effort to hawk its new grilled chicken in a big way, had a website where you could go and supposedly print a coupon for a free meal featuring the grilled chicken. (And if you go to the site, don't let the association with the Oprah Winfrey Show scare you; I'm not by any means a viewer, and I'm sure my friend who told me about it isn't either. But news of free food spreads fast, no matter the source.) Anyway, that's all you had to do--go to the site, print the coupon. Sounds easy, right?

If only. Let me list the things I experienced today while not printing the coupon:

• At least ten "site too busy; come back later" errors.


• Probably twice that many "cannot open the page because the server dropped the connection" errors.


• The coupon was being handled by a third-party site, coupons.com, that required you to install their special software on your computer, ostensibly because each coupon had a unique bar code so you couldn't go print a hundred of them and pass them out to your office or something. I installed the software successfully, according to my computer, but hitting the "print coupons" button returned me to the page that said I hadn't installed their software yet. (I even did so a second time, with the same results.)


• Once I finally got to the page that should have printed it, I was told that I had an unsupported browser--this despite the fact that I was using the only browser (Safari) listed for my OS (Mac OS "10.3 or higher"). I even tried it on (unsupported) Firefox and actually got a bit farther through the process than I did with Safari--but still no coupon.


• Eventually, I must have passed my quota of hitting the print button, because I was told on each browser that I had surpassed the number of allowed times to print the coupon, even though I never had jack squat come through my printer.


• And for the nasty icing on this rancid cake, my attempts to send a complaint message to coupons.com yielded nothing but error messages themselves!

I know I'm not the only person who had trouble with this; Jay Hancock of the Baltimore Sun had the same problem, as did a legion of commenters to his post (which was also punctuated by snarky trolls whose basic thought was "quit whining and go spend five bucks already!").

This isn't exactly a shining moment for either KFC, which is obviously trying hard to remake its image (since lots of people know that the F stands for "fried"), and coupons.com, which didn't exactly win any friends either. I did submit a "comment" to KFC on their page, so we'll see what happens.

Did any other Musings reader try this? And if so, did you have any luck? Let me know in the comments.

Another One Bites the Dust

Last weekend, we said goodbye to Circuit City (OK, I bade it farewell here back in January), and now another music-themed retailer is going the way of the dodo: All locations of the Virgin Megastore are about to be liquidated. I agree with the point of the Consumerist writer that the following quote from this story announcing the closures is a little odd:

[T]he real estate firms that own the U.S. chain determined they could command higher rent from new tenants.

So they're going to close down something they already own, in a bad economy, and they expect to get even more money from someone else? Let's see how that works out...

I haven't been to a Virgin Megastore in a while (the most recent time was at the Times Square location during IAJE two years ago), but there was a time when I used to go to Grapevine Mills every month on alumni-meeting days (that was my walk-around-and kill-time spot before I was lured away by Southlake Town Square). The Grapevine store was cool in that it took up a center portion of the oval-shaped mall and was thus accessible from both sides. While the regular prices were quite high (on a par with Tower Records, which itself closed a few years ago), they had plenty of things on sale at any given time, and their listening stations, while not quite up to the level of the "sample anything in the store" system at Barnes and Noble, had plenty from which to choose. For a while, their jazz selection was really good, and I spent more than a little bit of time and money there. But as I said in the story about Tower's demise, it became far more common for me to discover something at Virgin and then either buy it used somewhere else or at Amazon (or iTunes in recent years), and I'm sure I'm not the only one whose habits changed in that manner.

I've said before that, no matter how many downloads I buy (and there's bound to be a lot in the future; my "save for later" list on eMusic is at around 170 titles!), there's still something nice about the tangible, physical CD (especially in terms of liner notes, which are crucial to jazz listeners), and likewise, there's still something nice about having a store to browse around in that holds all those tangible CDs. But Virgin will obviously not be that store, at least after this summer.

(I was going to close this post by saying that a trip to Grapevine Mills would be in the offing soon. But Wikipedia tells me that the Grapevine store already closed, a few months ago. D'oh.)

Someone Tripped the Circuit (CIty) Breaker

I was disappointed, but not surprised, to see that Circuit City is going out of business. They had already closed a few underperforming stores at the end of the year, but they couldn't find a buyer, so they pretty much ran out of options.

As noted here, being #2 in your retail category is usually a safe place, but that's not the case right now; other second-place holders such as Linens and Things and KB Toys have also fallen in recent months. At the first linked article, a former CEO stated that the likely causes of Circuit City's demise (besides the crappy economy) were that they "didn’t take the threat of rival Best Buy Co. seriously enough and, at some points, were too focused on making a profit in the short term instead of building long-term value."

I haven't shopped at Circuit City all that much in recent years, but they were good to me back in the day, offering my just-out-of-grad school self a line of credit to finance a car stereo when Best Buy all but laughed at me for applying. Though I've never bought a whole bunch of electronics during any given year, I also went to those stores when they had good deals on CD's, and, for a while, the Plano Circuit City had a decent jazz selection (the one here at Firewheel, however, did not do so well in that area; from looking at their CD aisle, you'd swear they must have read a demographic study saying that half the people in Garland spoke only Spanish). I also bought my washer and dryer from Circuit City, and they've lasted over 12 years now.

It's unfortunate that a lot of retailers are leaving the landscape right now; it would be better if Best Buy had more competition instead of less (because I haven't been all that impressed with them in recent years), and I hate to see all the big empty boxes that will be the result of Circuit City's demise (especially the hole it will leave in Firewheel, so soon after Linens and Things shuttered right around Christmas). Hopefully, once things turn around and people start buying things again, someone will find a creative use for all those boxes. (In terms of Firewheel--hey, Conn's, howdja like to come to Garland?)

In an earlier post on the subject, when it looked like Circuit City might weather the storm, I linked to a video of one of their early '90s commercials that featured the old "plug" building design. As a farewell of sorts, I'll post it here:

Gotta love the prices on the old computers, especially in proportion to their (lack of) power.

As I've mentioned before, I have a TV that dates to 1991. I don't have to worry about the upcoming DTV changeover, because I have cable, but that set is not going to last forever. I'll be watching the liquidation sale for the next few weeks to see if I can get a deal, but others have said that, so far, it's only 10% off, which is still not cheaper than Amazon, and perhaps that's a fitting epitaph for the company. Still, it's sad to see it go.

How Black Was Your Friday?

I spent quite a bit of yesterday driving back from Houston, so i wasn't "fully engaged" in the Black Friday process this year. But if my one morning trip to a furniture store is any indication, there are plenty of people out there who--despite the weakened economy--won't shrink from a bargain. (If you're wondering why I was at a furniture store on Black Friday, it was to help select what's going to be my Christmas present from Mom and Dad: A new living room set. As Mom pointed out, most of the furniture I've ever had has either been hand-me-downs [from them] or hand-me-ups [from my sister], so it was about time that I got something brand-new for Casa de Kev. Sure, it spoils the "surprise," but it's not like they were going to wrap up a sofa and leave it under the tree in the first place.)

So my quick survey questions for you are as follows:

• Did you do any shopping yesterday?


• If so, were the shopping centers more or less crowded than in previous years?


• Did you actually buy anything? And did it appear that people around you were mostly buying things or just window-shopping?

Remember that you can comment anonymously on this blog, but it's better to pick a screenname so that we don't have two many Anonymi running around.

Some Circuit City Stores to "Unplug"--But Not RIght Here

Some portions of corporate America continue to fall on hard times, and cutbacks have ensued. A few months ago, we talked about the doomed Starbucks list, and now I've had the chance to read the doomed Circuit City list, which doesn't include nearly so many stores (though it's not like there's a Circuit City on every corner, nor do they build across the street from themselves). There are only four stores in D/FW on the list (and that's if you expand the metro area to include Sherman), and only nine in Texas, period (though one of the ones that's closing is a store in Mansfield that's been open for little more than a month.

I was of course happy to see that the one here in Firewheel was not among the doomed stores; though the center has been pretty good about replacing tenants both large and small that have closed (such as the forthcoming Hollister that's being built in the old Sharper Image spot underneath the clock tower), it would have been a blow to the area to have such a big store go out, especially with the impending loss of Linens 'n' Things. (And besides, I want some shopping options whenever my vintage 1991 TV finally gives out.)

One of the ones closest to here that is on the list is an older store at Central and Meadow in north Dallas; it's so old that it still has the original "plug-in" design. That didn't ring a bell with one of my younger friends until I found a picture of one here, in a forum on the site Groceteria, which usually discusses--you guessed it--grocery stores. (Scroll down about halfway to see the picture, and check out this shot of a former CC store with the plug painted blue!) And a bit later, I found a video of the old "plug" commercial as well (from '94, if the YouTube commenters are correct).

What's your favorite "retro" commercial? And is the company that it's, umm, plugging still in business?

UPDATE: Did I speak too soon? As of Monday, Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will eventually close more stores.

And in other electronics news: The iPhone (which I'm still contemplating purchasing soon) does lots of things, but did you know it can be used as an ocarina? (More Apple news here; hat tip: Instapundit.)

Not Going Postal, But Still Annoyed

This weekend, I had to send out some very important paperwork that had to do with part of my employment. It came in one of those big manila envelopes, so I figured I'd send it out in something similar, so as not to get everything all folded up.

Now, is it me, or didn't mailing something that was that size, but still lightweight (the mailing in question weighed 1.3 ounces), used to cost the same as a regular letter? I was pretty sure that was the case, but I decided to put it on the self-service electronic scale at the post office just to make sure it wasn't overweight. So I was more than a little surprised to discover that the machine expected a dollar's worth of postage instead of the 42-cent "Forever Stamp" that I had already affixed to the envelope.

Obviously, I'm not the only one who was under the impression that the cost was the same, as one of the options offered to me was to make up the difference between the regular stamp and the dollar. I did this, and it printed me a new label, so hopefully the presence of the label and the stamp won't confuse the person who handles it. And then, since the machine can't accept charges of less than a dollar, it printed me a 42-cent computer-generated stamp for later. It wasn't an arduous process, but it still really took me by surprise.

So does anyone know when the price went up to mail the larger envelope? Did it coincide with the most recent rate hike? Or had it been more expensive all along, and I had somehow just gotten away with it for a long time? (I'm really doubting the latter.) Chime in via the comments if you know.

I Guess Bennigan's Lost Its "Slàinte" Today

I was quite surprised to hear on the radio today that corporate parent of Bennigan's and Steak & Ale restaurants filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy today and immediately shuttered its company-owned locations (including all the ones here in the Metroplex).

This was surprising to me, because a lot of companies will go through Chapter 11 (reorganization) first, rather than going straight into Chapter 7 (liquidation). I don't necessarily read the business section religiously, but I usually catch the big headlines, and I didn't recall them being in trouble. Those who were headed there for lunch today were probably in for a shock, as were the restaurants' employees; many of the managers only got word through an early-morning conference call today.

Bennigan's, known for its use of the Irish toast "Slàinte!" (which means "good health"), was probably number four on my list of festive, eclectic casual dining restaurants, behind the mighty triumvirate of Chili's, Cheddar's and Friday's, but I certainly went there on many occasions. The most recent time, I believe, was in April during Jazz Festival at the college, where we went with the guest artists after one of the concerts (and, ironically, first learned of the troubles at IAJE that would lead to its own Chapter 7 filing a few weeks later). I may not have been a "regular," but I was glad Bennigan's was around, and I'll miss it. (The franchise-owned Bennigan's aren't affected, but, seeing as how the parent company was located in Plano, all the local ones were company-owned and are thus closed.)

And while I hadn't visited its corporate sibling, Steak & Ale, in quite some time, it leaves a legacy of innovation in its field. As this morning's radio report noted, it was not only the chain that launched the salad bar, but it also pioneered the practice of having the server introduce him/herself to the customers. (What did they do before that--just go straight into the "What will you have today?" spiel? Weird...)

My personal memories were mostly good (including a long first date in the '90s with a woman who smoked like a factory; I'm normally allergic to cigarette smoke, but we talked for hours and it didn't affect me at all. I guess hormones trump allergies?), and the one on Northwest HIghway was a common post-concert hang in the early days of this blog. I didn't go for their signature Monte Cristo all that often (just because I knew it was bad for me), but I could always find something good to eat, or occasionally drink, on their voluminous menu (which weighed a ton, if I recall).

The only bad time I can remember having there involved one really hideously awful server (whose name really was Gidget, I kid you not), the final debacle with whom would prompt our alumni association to change its monthly meeting place across the freeway to Chili's, where we've been ever since now, for nearly a decade. (Other Dallas Morning News readers share their Bennigan's memories here.)

It's possible that, with today's economy, some other large restaurant chain will go belly-up like this, but today's news still came from out of left field for me. Were you a fan of Bennigan's? Feel free to share your own memories in the comments.

UPDATE: According to a follow-up article in the DMN, there are two non-company-owned Bennigan's in DFW--at the airport and in Las Colinas--that are evidently staying open.

AND ANOTHER UPDATE: Lileks has the best one-word description of the closing: Bennegone's.

Starbucks Publishes Its "List of Doom"

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Starbucks was going to close 600 of its underperforming stores, and now, the company has released the list of all the stores facing closure nationwide. The list, which may be found here, includes quite a few stores in Texas, but only one in my immediate area.

Since my work keeps me on the move, I don't have a "personal Starbucks," like the Florida customers interviewed for this story. Or perhaps it would be even more accurate to say that I have several, depending on what part of town I'm in on that particular day. Sure, there's one that's close to my house that I probably visit more than others to meet with friends, read, etc., but there are plenty of others in the mix as well.

But as I said, only one in my neighborhood (and the only one on my favorites list, for that matter) is closing: the one inside Firewheel Town Center itself. I blogged about its opening day in '05, but I noticed that, except on weekends, its small size (it maybe seats 16 at the most) probably kept it from doing the business it needed to do. With a much bigger Starbucks in Firewheel Market out front (and a pseudo-one in Barnes and Noble), I could see how it would be a challenge. Still, I'll miss the opportunity to get a warm drink and carry it on The Walk™ on cold winter's days; I guess B&N gets that part of my business now, unless I'm parked out front in the first place.

Do you have a favorite Starbucks? If so, is it surviving the purge?

Amazing fact from the list: The corner of Preston and Park in Plano, which has Starbucks on three of the four quadrants formed by the intersection, has no stores appearing on the list.

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday to Ben, my friend and former bandmate. (The Starbucks near where he grew up isn't closing, either.)

The Star(bucks) Is Losing a LIttle of Its Shine

I guess this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise during somewhat of an economic downturn, but it was still weird to read this story: Starbucks plans to close 600 of its U.S. locations in the near future. Despite concerns about oversaturation in some markets, the company is not blaming that for the closures; rather, it's attributing it to the sluggish economy (which makes sense; people who have to buy more $4 gas may have less room in their wallets for as many $4 lattes as usual).

No specific locations have been announced yet, but most of the stores to be closed are 1) underperforming (duhh), 2) opened within the past two years, and 3) located close to another company-owned store. I have no clue if this will affect any of the ones in my neighborhood (which is now nicely Starbucked just a few short years after not having any at all within two miles), but they all seem to be doing well (and one of them is actually a Barnes and Noble Cafe and thus isn't company-owned). I wonder if Preston and Park in Plano, which has Starbucks on three of the four corners, will be affected.

Whatever happens, it's weird to think about a Starbucks closing; the only time I've ever seen that happen was when an entire shopping center got redeveloped. Even though some people consider them to be an evil empire along the lines of Wal-Mart, I've been a fan ever since they came to Texas in the mid-'90s. It's a great place to meet up with friends, grade papers, or even do some solitary reading, and it's one of the best "safe" places that the under-21 crowd can go to at night. (And for small, independent businesspeople--not to mention recruiters, Realtors, etc.--it serves as a nice temporary office with "rent' as low as the cost of a tall drip.)

Sure, it's hard to get a gig at a Starbucks most of the time (though the second post on this blog dealt with a time when I came very close to having one, and I would succeed in that about a week later), and maybe, if there is a location to be closed in this area, it can be reborn as an independent coffeehouse that has live music; one can only hope.

And don't forget--it's been shown that the presence of Starbucks in a market actually helps independent coffeehouses by getting the locals excited about upscale coffee drinking. They may take a piece of the mom-and-pop store's pie, but not before making the pie bigger overall.

It's not like the company is headed down the tubes or anything; they're still planning on opening new stores, but they'll be a bit more selective about it now. Still, it was surprising to see that the mighty giant isn't totally invincible.

But here's a dining idea that I hope won't take off: The Krispy Kreme bacon cheesburger. (As the lolcats might say, "You can has. DO NOT WANT.")

These monkeys must have tried the above already: Some Rhesus monkeys in a Japanese park are being put on a crash diet because they're too fat (probably from being fed by park visitors as well as their own handlers).

The End of a Fun Era in Aviation

It was a big day in the airline industry, as outgoing Southwest Airlines chairman Herb Kelleher chaired his last meeting under that title before stepping down and becoming an "ordinary employee" tomorrow:

This is an obituary for a guy who hasn't died, a retirement story for a person who hasn't retired, a goodbye for someone who isn't going anywhere.

Chairman Herb Kelleher, 77, will chair his 31st and last Southwest Airlines Co. annual meeting Wednesday, ending one of the longest and most colorful tenures for a head of a U.S. airline.

[...]And Mr. Kelleher says he expects to still be coming to work every day in 2013, when he turns 82.

"I would guess so. I enjoy it. I enjoy work. You can refer to me as a drone, a worker bee. I always have enjoyed it," Mr. Kelleher said Friday, adding, "I hope I can still be useful."

Oh, I'm sure they'll put him to good use. He's been pretty useful thus far. Known as the "crazy" chief executive in an industry usually dominated by stuffed shirts, he made Southwest in his own image, and it became famous as the airline that was fun to fly and appeared to be fun to work for as well. This morning on the radio, even some of the union officials were saying nice things about him. (Contrast this, if you will, with what they were saying about American Airlines in front of its own board meeting across town today.)

Flying hasn't become any easier recently, and it's not getting any cheaper either. It's always been refreshing to me to have the "fun" airline so close to home. (And yes, besides the fact that I'll take "fun" over "stuffy corporate" any day of the week, I also very much prefer the ease of Love Field vs. the congestion and expense of DFW.) And a lot of the fun element of Southwest came courtesy of the man that everyone evidently simply calls Herb. (I hope you enjoy those weekends off now, Herb.)

UPDATE: This post was linked at a site called Topix; thanks to whomever is responsible.

Flying the unfriendly skies: In case you missed this last week, a JetBlue passenger is suing the airline because a pilot made him sit on a toilet for three hours so a flight attendant (who thought that the "jump seat" assigned to her was uncomfortable) could have his seat.

End of the Free Ride at Amazon?

I buy a lot of music online these days; in fact, it's rare for me to make any purchases from a brick-and-mortar music retailer at all anymore, unless it's a used store like Recycled or CD Source (the only exception being when I have a Barnes and Noble coupon that takes even more off the price than my membership does). When I'm ordering online, it's common for Amazon and B&N to have the same price on certain CD's; if that's the case, Amazon wins for me, because they don't charge state sales tax. But that might soon be changing:

Texans who shop Amazon.com to avoid paying sales taxes may not have that luxury for long.

The Texas Comptroller's Office is investigating whether the Internet retail behemoth, with sales last year of $14.8 billion, owes Texas possibly millions of dollars in uncollected sales taxes on purchases made by its customers in the state.

Seattle-based Amazon.com has been operating a distribution center in Irving since 2006, giving it a "physical presence" in Texas, a longstanding litmus test for when sales taxes must be collected by an online or mail-order company.

The issue came to light last month after Amazon.com Inc. sued the state of New York over whether it should begin charging customers state sales taxes, citing the federal law it appears to be breaking in Texas.

[...]For e-commerce, Texas and most states follow federal law that allows states to impose sales tax obligations on out-of-state retailers with a "physical presence" in their state. "Physical presence" is defined as anything from a store, warehouse or distribution center to a sales agent or delivery truck, according to the Texas Comptroller.

The state's tax-collecting agency didn't know Amazon.com was operating a facility here until this week when The Dallas Morning News called to ask why the online powerhouse wasn't charging Texas customers sales taxes, said Robin Corrigan, the comptroller's team leader for sales tax policy.

"We will definitely send out a team to investigate," Ms. Corrigan said. She is the state's representative to the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board, a national group that's sought uniform standards for e-commerce and mail-order companies since 2000.

That was yesterday's story, for which Amazon was unavailable for comment. But today, the online giant fired back:

Amazon.com Inc. said Friday it believes it's in compliance with state laws after the Texas Comptroller's Office said this week it is investigating whether the Internet retailer should charge sales tax to Texas customers.

A spokeswoman for the Seattle-based chain said that its distribution center in Irving is operated by a subsidiary called Amazon.com.kydc Inc. and not by Amazon.com Inc.

Under Texas law, the subsidiary isn't required to collect sales taxes, said Amazon.com spokeswoman Patty Smith.

"We continue to interact with and cooperate with local and state Texas tax officials at many levels," she said. "The state of Texas is fully aware of Amazon.com's subsidiaries' Texas operations, and we remain in compliance with all Texas laws governing sales tax collection."

So this will probably go back and forth for a while, and who knows how it will all end. If nothing else, I'm glad that the taxing authorities took it easy on Net-based businesses in the early days of e-commerce, or the whole thing might never have gotten off the ground in the first place. And while I'm no fan of the government finding every possible way to take more money out of our pockets, I can see how the growth of online businesses could make them nervous about lost revenue. Hopefully, this will work out well for everyone.

I can has award? K thx bye: Congrats to I Can Has Cheezburger?, probably the top lolcat site on the Internet, for winning two categories (yes, that's right, cat-egories) in the 12th annual Webby Awards.

UPDATE: It turns out that ICHC is growing so much that the site is hiring more people. (It's probably one of the few businesses that not only disregard spelling mistakes--or would that be "misteakz"--on resumes, but they probably encourage it.)

The End of an Era

I found out as I left Brook Mays yesterday that this would be my final time to teach there, as the store is closing on Sunday. Everyone has known this day was coming for quite some time, since the company was sold out of bankruptcy to a liquidator back in August (my earlier thoughts on the subject are here), but it was still a little weird to walk out of there yesterday evening knowing that I would not be doing so next week.

As i said in the earlier post, I've been a part of the Plano store since May of 1992; it started out as what was supposed to be a summer job in the print music department, but, even as that job continued, it grew into an additional teaching venue that both paid more than the schools do and allowed me the chance to work with some good students from other districts who wouldn't have crossed paths with me otherwise. The place has been getting emptier as the weeks have gone by, and by the time I was there yesterday, almost an entire half of the store was vacant; it reminded me of the day we moved back into the building on Labor Day of '94 (we had been in temporary quarters since a fire in June of '93). The circle of life, as they say...

Later on in the week, I'll compile a post about all the funny stuff that customers said when they called the store with questions; I always said I could write a book about that, so a blog post should be fairly effortless.

A walk along the mean (and green) streets: A dog that disappeared from his family's California home last month has finally been found...all the way over here, in Denton. They found him because he had one of those microchips implanted in his neck containing his owners' information.

Tower of Not-So-Power

I was not surprised when I read a few days ago that Tower Records is closing its doors forever (the sale started today); it really is a sign of the times. (It is a shame, though, that the bankruptcy judge refused to award the chain to a slightly lower bidder who would have closed only a few of the stores; even Tower's creditors were in favor of doing this.)

I always enjoyed going to Tower when it first opened in the Dallas area. It's not exactly in my backyard, but it's mere blocks from Uptown, where my sister and brother-in-law used to live about a decade ago, so I was down there a lot. Unlike most of the big chains, it had a rather impressive selection of things, especially in the jazz area, which is woefully underrepresented in many such stores. I enjoyed checking out new stuff at the lstening stations, and I appreciated its local music section. I could spend hours in the place.

But the thing was, even then, I didn't often buy very much there, unless it was on sale. With list prices of $16.99 to $18.99 for most CD's, Tower was a little rich for my blood. Sometimes, there'd be something for a good price, and on occasion, I'd pay the premium price just to get something that I literally couldn't find anywhere else. But more often than not, I'd listen to something new at Tower and then wait until it showed up at CD Source or CD Warehouse to buy it at half that price; the arrival of Amazon.com made my trips to Tower even fewer and farther between.

And I'm sure that downloads provided the final nail in the coffin. Even though I now have a computer with decent storage space and CD-burning capability, I haven't bought all that much stuff off download sites yet, because to me, there's still something about the tangibility of a CD that appeals to me. Maybe the fact that I've lost two iTunes libraries in computer crashes is preventing me from seeing a downloaded CD as something permanent yet, but I also just like reading the liner notes, looking at the cover art, etc.

The article also notes that the major labels (or, as I call them, The Machine) are in the process of taking a similar hit, which, as I've said, is generally fine with me; it's time to turn control of the creative industry back to the creators. Still, it makes me pause for a moment; a visit to the Big Record Store, something to which I'd looked forward since I was a little kid, is passing into memory now. I wonder if I'll go downtown and check out the sale...

Tag, you're it: Check out this spoof on a clothing label; it's very funny, but definitely only for the single, or those who wish to be.