Sign of the Times 2

So once again I find myself being forced to go on a business trip to Miami. Having learned my lesson last time (see Sign of the Times in Archives: Nov 2006), I decided to fly Southwest into Ft. Lauderdale.

Honestly the Super Bowl had absolutely nothing to do with the timing of my trip.

As I pulled up to curbside checkin, I again noticed the line for Southwest was double and more the line for the other carrier I flew to Miami last time, but I was not afraid. With my new perspective I saw why the Southwest curbside line moved so fast – Southwest had six people working the curbside checkin instead of two for the other carrier. Just to keep score, I paced myself against a person who arrived at the other checkin. By the time I was cleared there were three people ahead of him. This was a good sign.

Thanks to Southwest's aggressive fuel hedging strategies, I was able to check in a 57 pound suitcase with clothes for two weeks without public humiliation. This was a good sign.

Once again I was taking an evening flight across the country. The flight left on time. This was a good sign.

Unlike my previous trip, I was surprised to learn that I was going to be on the same plane all the way. That was new and different for a seasoned Southwest flyer who is used to at least two plane changes going from west coast to east coast. This was a VERY GOOD sign.

While reading the in flight magazine I learned that Southwest now flies to Hawaii. In view of the turmoil affecting the rest of the carriers flying to Hawaii I thought this was a very good sign for me, but is going to be a very bad sign for the carriers who have been abusing passengers going to Hawaii for years.

The last time I flew to Miami, I was not allowed to bring a submarine sandwich and coffee on board because it was dangerous. About the only thing I saw that was dangerous, was the fat gram and the sodium levels. But the FAA was sure that there was a possibility that I could have used the sandwich to beat the aircrew into submission and taken over the flight.

So this time I didn’t buy a sandwich and felt like an idiot as the rest of the seasoned Southwest fliers paraded onto the plane carrying sandwiches, pizzas, Chinese plate dinners and coffee. All I was going to have eat for the long haul would be a couple bags of airline peanuts. This was not a good sign, but I blame this one on stupidity of the same person that banned toe nail clippers as a threat to national security.

The flight left LAX on time and everything was smooth sailing until we got to Texas and we encountered turbulence. There always seems to be turbulence over Texas so it was no big thing as far as I was concerned. As usual, the beverage service was stopped before the got to me. But before I could get too upset, the pilots just took the plane up to 41,000 feet until they were over the turbulence and then the beverage service continued. This was a good sign.

Of course there is no movie on a Southwest flight, but the seat and the reading light worked. I had a good book, and glass of passable wine. This was a good sign.

I got to Ft. Lauderdale. It was dark. It was late. It was raining. It always seems to be raining whenever I go to Florida. I am still waiting for proof the motto "The Sunshine State" on the license plates is justified.

Unlike Miami, the car rental concession is connected to the terminal, so I was able to make my way dry and unaccosted to my rental car. No panhandlers, no verbal abuse, no flashing. This was a good sign.

Judging Books by Their Covers

The reason it has taken me so long to post a comment on shopping, is the fact I have gone this long without doing anything other than grocery shopping. That changed this past weekend when I started looking at new cars.

I like bargains just as much as anyone else. So when I shop for a new car, I buy last year's model. To me, the very minor differences in this year's model are more than offset by the substantial discounts on last year's model, which plays into the hands of the advertising guru for the dealerships.

I went back to the dealership where I bought my last car and requested my former salesperson only to learn she was gone. I wanted to buy from her again, because she was so professional it made me want to come back. She was gone and now I was back to square one: "Whom to buy from?"

I asked my friends who have "recently" bought new cars looking for a salesperson they could recommend and got nothing but tales of bad, miserable, and frustrating car shopping experiences.

So I went to an auto mall and first dealership I went to was amazingly insulting on so many levels, it would've been very upsetting if I weren't a consultant who could use the experience as a good example of "bad salesmanship." Let's look at all the levels the dealership wasted money on marketing.

STRIKE ONE: There's an old saying: "You never get a second chance to make a good first impression." And this dealer team worked very hard to create a bad one with me. As I drove in I saw what I was expecting to see; the usual line of sharks waiting their turn.

But want made this memorable; in a bad way, was the way a salesperson "high fived" the rest of the line up as he made he way towards me.

STRIKE TWO: The salesperson took all of 90 SECONDS before suggesting very strongly we get me "pre-qualified on financing first" to make sure "we": don't waste time (looking at cars I can't afford). Since he did absolutely NO QUALIFYING on me at this point, how could he assume:

a) to know what I could or couldn't afford.

b) that I wasn't a cash buyer. They do exist.

c) that I didn't already have financing in place.

STRIKE THREE: I came in because I am looking for a 2006, and they were advertising a clearance sale on the older models. When I mentioned I wanted to look at the 2006's, the salesperson, implied I would be making a big mistake and kept extolling the virtues of the 2007 models over the 2006 models.

I had been on the lot for less than five minutes, and I was ready to leave. Needless to say, I didn't buy there and probably never will. The experience was so bad, I probably will never be coming back to the dealership, so they have lost me forever. If anyone asks me where to go, I will tell them where not to go.

So all the money the dealer spent getting me in the door has now gone down the drain because of a salesperson who was more interested in telling me what I want than asking me what I want.

Now to be fair to him, let's look at the first few minutes of the encounter from his point of view, because maybe I didn't impress him as a good customer. After all I drove up in a 1977 Toyota Landcruiser. It is a mountain truck that looks like it gets heavy use – which it does. Maybe he decided based on my clothing. I was wearing jeans, tee shirt and sneakers. Maybe he decided my fixation on "last year's" model implied I didn't have much money to spend.

Should any of this excuse his behavior? NO.

One of the oldest sayings in retail is "Never judge a book by it's cover." and it is so true. Back many years ago when I was in securities, an old man came into the office in stained khakis, a polo shirt with a hole in it and slippers. The broker who was taking "walk ins" that day called me and asked me to cover the front desk so he could take a cigarette break.

As soon as I got to the desk and looked through the glass doors, I saw why the other broker suddenly needed a cigarette. I didn't smoke or I might have been tempted to call someone else before the old man got in the door. But I was bored, it was lunch time and I thought this would be a good way to kill some time; and in the process learned the value of never judging a book by it's cover.

I followed my training and did a full presentation and took time to answer all his questions. After about 45 minutes he thanked me, took the information kit and told me he would think about it. I thought nothing of it until I was called to the front desk the following day to greet a visitor, and there was the old man – still dressed in khakis – with someone who turned out to be his CPA.

The old man was impressed with my patience answering his questions and opened a securities account with me for a very impressive amount. The other broker made a half-hearted attempt to split the account with me to no avail.

During my time in securities, I made a lot of money working with the old man and his wealthy friends all because I didn't judge a book by its cover.

Avoiding Mall Brawl

I have a confession to make. I have probably had one of the best Thanksgivings I have had in a long time. I didn't watch TV. I wasn't subjected to an endless barrage of ads pushing Holiday Sales. I wasn't in line at a Big Box Last Night waiting for Midnight Madness (appropriately named) along with tens of thousands of bargain hunters around the country. I stayed home this weekend and avoided the insanity.

Having done all my shopping very early buying mostly on line, I was done before Thanksgiving. And I was not the only one. Many people I talked to about their shopping plans were "mostly" finished before Thanksgiving. So it was interesting to hear on the news that traffic was heavy but buying in the stores was light.

Buying online this weekend was a different story. Wal-Mart's website was hit so hard on Black Friday it went down several times for a total of 15 minutes as a estimated 22 Million People tried to access the TV and Electronic pages. Wal-Mart estimates this blackout probably cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars as frustrated shoppers went to other sites to buy.

E-Stores are reporting a different story. Ebay sold 14,000+ of the hard to get Xbox at an average price of $1,200, or nearly three times the retail price. Amazon.com sold out of its entire supply of X-Boxes in 29 seconds. Sold out it's entire supply of Mongoose Mountain bikes and Barbie Dolls in 15 minutes. Pricegrabber.com saw a 225% spike in traffic compared to the rest of November and most of that spike was on the TOY pages. Shopping.com saw a 40% spike in traffic over the daily average for the rest of the month.

The Nation Retail Foundation forecasts that 137 million shoppers will visit retail stores this Christmas shopping season (between Black Friday and Christmas Eve). Ebay had 7.5 million shoppers on Black Friday alone.

Depending on which research group you watched on the news shows this weekend; the estimates for online retail sales over the Thanksgiving weekend were between $1.15 billion and $1.73 billion. The general consensus is that web sales this Christmas season will jump up 30% percent over the same period last year to more than $27 billion.

The big box stores saw huge crowds and disappointing sales. To make matters worse, the cost of drawing in the crowds was huge considering the level or promotional pricing and discounting. Wal-Mart is now projecting flat sales to -.01% lower than last year for Black Friday. Other stores are reporting similar experiences.

I didn't shop online to save money. Truth be known; including shipping and insurance, I probably paid close to what those people who were standing in line paid.

I shopped online to avoid the mayhem usually associated with Christmas shopping. I hate the "hyper intensity" and "shark feeding frenzied" atmosphere in the stores. I hate the bad background music interlaced with endless "price promotion" broadcasts. I hate the way the stores are so full of merchandise, signs, and displays you have to almost walk sideways in the aisles.

I hate the way the worst in people come out in what is supposed to be one of the most joyful times of the year as local news delights in the endless running of the "road rage" incidents captured on video in mall parking lots.

I hate having to run gauntlet of panhandlers in the parking lots and coupon/flyer dispensers strategically positioned at the entrances like offensive linemen; and I am not alone feeling this way. The last couple of years the purchase of GIFT CARDS has increased dramatically. It is estimated this year there will be a 50% increase in GIFT CARD purchases this year.

I personally think that unless stores can improve the shopping experience to the point they won't need to use aggressive discounts to lure shoppers, the pendulum is going to keep swinging towards e-shopping.

I think the differences in shopping experiences between store shoppers and e-shoppers this Black Friday was best summed up by a television news interview of a woman who had been standing in line at a store since noon on Thanksgiving waiting for the store to open at Midnight. "I'm feeling pretty stupid about now."

Sign of the Times

I had to go out of town to one of the three cities left in the US still not served by Southwest Airlines. I had to fly another airline. I hadn’t flown them in quite a while and was looking forward to seeing if they learned anything while they were in bankruptcy.

As we pulled up to curbside check into I felt great. Southwest had about 40 people in line at curbside check in and my carrier had 5 people in line. I was thinking to myself this just might work out. Half an hour later, the Southwest line was gone and I still had one person in front of me. This was not a good sign.

Traveling by air these days is bad enough without having to deal with surly attitudes. My bad was overweight by eleven pounds and I was directed to check in inside because he is not allowed to accept over weight baggage. I went inside and there was another long line. It was still two hours before my flight and now I was having doubts that I was going to make my flight.

When I got inside, I asked why they couldn’t handle me outside, and the man behind the counter said, “I don’t know why not. All they had to do was tell you to move some clothes from one bag to the other.”

Fortunately, the flight was delayed and I made it just as they were boarding the plane. Then the irony struck me. I was happy my flight was delayed. This was not a good sign.

The flight was an evening flight – the kind of flight where most of the passengers are business travelers. The airline used to charge for head sets to watch the movie, but now they are free. I was just beginning to have hope this would be a pleasant flight after all, and then announced the movie: “Over the Hedge.” There was not a kid on the flight, just a load of grumpy tired business men moving from point A to point B.

The bad thing about the collapse of the airline industry has been full planes. Apparently the airline industry hasn’t noticed American’s are getting bigger. So the only thing that made flying comfortable was the empty middle seats. With the fully occupied planes, the comfort is gone. This flight was no exception it was full and since I was traveling at the last minute, I was shoehorned into the dreaded center seat. As I approached my row, I knew it was going to be a tight fit because I am a big guy to begin with and the other seats were occupied by the a couple of guys that looked like linemen in the NFL. This was not a good sign.

Due to the extended check in – the long the long line in security, I was not able to stop to get a coffee for the flight as I normally did. Not that that would have helped since you can’t carry any fluids on planes any more. The flight was very turbulent. The turbulence kept the stewardesses in their seats and the drink cart in the galley. No movie, no reading, no comfort, no drinking. So I arrived at Denver parched, frustrated and exhausted.

I stressed trying to get out of the plane to make my connection as I fought the Universal law of flying that says: “The tighter your connections between flights, the further back in the cabin you will be seated and the slower the people in front of you will move as they exit the plane.”

Thank God, my connecting flight was having engine trouble. Now instead of forty minutes between flights, I now had 4 hours between flights while they scrounged up a spare plane. I was happy on another level about this delay. Prior to this I had serious concerns about the airline’s ability to get the baggage to my connecting flight on time. Now I am confident they will. I am happy my flight is going to be seriously late? This is not a good sign.

I use my time wisely. I return my calls. I respond to my email. I eat a late dinner. Now I have to kill three hours and thirty minutes.

I am a little giddy as I get on the plane because the computer system screwed up and assigned me an aisle seat. I should have known this was just the Universe’s way of setting me up for the fall one last time on this flight. After take off, I reached up to turn on my reading light…and it didn’t work.

The reading lights for everyone else worked. I realized I was being tested at the moment: What did I want more: to read my book, which would now require me to trade seats with the person in the middle seat; or to sit on the aisle? It wasn’t even close. I decided I would continue to sit on the aisle. Having made the decision not to move, I thought I would try to take a nap for the remaining three hours of the flight to Miami, but the Universe wasn’t finished with me yet… the seat refused to recline. This is not a good sign.

As I sit upright in the dark, I wonder if I can sue Southwest for not flying to Miami from Reno, and decide if I ever tried to do that I’d be condemned to a lifetime of “C” boarding passes (Southwest fliers will know what I am talking about.), so I let the urge pass and suffer in silence, upright, in the dark, for the next three hours.

I got to Miami. It was dark. It was late. It was raining. I was looking for some kind of sign that all my suffering was going to be worth it. That my trip under such adverse conditions was going to be a meaningful experience. It was going to be an enlightening experience. I was looking for a way to make lemonade out of my experience so far as I loaded my bags into the rental car.

At that point a homeless person wandering through the parking lot asked me for money, and when I refused, he opened his zipper and peed at me and said “Welcome to Miami asshole.” This was not a good sign.