Helpful Shopping Tips

o.k. people let’s review. The grocery store is for shopping—NOT the check out line! Yesterday I got in the 15 items or less line (about 5th in line) when the lady in the front started arguing about her coupon (dollar coupon when 2 items). She figured she should get half of it if she only bought one item (C’mon, READ the coupon BEFORE you get in line). So I move to a new line that opens up (and end behind two large ladies loading up on strawberry short cake stuff, and THEY ask about the price of the strawberry. I know you won’t believe this but off they went with the check out person for 7 min!. C’mon!

crappy contractors

i’m tired of listening to people complain and bitch about there contractors. you constantly hear this guy was late or never finished or this was crappy or this isnt what i thought i was going to get. you now what i blame the people, the owners. most times after listening to these people i ask which bid they took or how they picked thier contractor, ooooo and what a surprise they took the lowest bid they could find or thought that “marko’s handy man service” that hires any idiot that owns a saw and calls himself a carpenter to do there work, is going to be the same as a qualified carpenter or contractor. as in with a lot of things you get what you paid for. dont blame “or bitch” about us contractors if your to cheep to pay for what you want.

postscript: In the end, we have the consumer to blame, or rather the culture in which he participates, where monetary cost is held above all other considerations when making decisions as well as the contractors who are not communicating the truth that their services are superior to the bottom-line bidders and that the customer will be more likely to be happy with a more complete job with a more experienced contractor for the small cost of a larger price tag.

Loyalty to Terrible Brands

OK, so our subject today will be ongoing loyalty to people, objects, and especially brands that suck. Why, for the love of all that is good in the world, do we content ourselves to be ruled by these things that so obviously do not have our own best interests in mind. I left home today and drove to the gas station—the same station that I go to every time I need to fill up—only to find that it is closing down all of its pumps as I am pulling into the lot. This station is always doing this, always closing at unexpected times, always leaving pumps out of service, and always screwing up my schedule. And when it is open, the pumps are slow, the quick pay machines are always broken, the staff is always rude. And still, I continue to go there week after week and give them my money, remaining ever complicit with their business model that causes me so much grief.And it isn’t just this station, it is the radio I listen to, the bank I use, the email service I subscribe to. None of these things ever perform well, none of them truly help me as much as competitive services would, and yet I continue to go to them.And it’s not just me. Look at Starbucks, doing better than ever, though companies like Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds  have consistently outscored them in coffee taste tests. Look at Microsoft, with 88% market share built on an operating system that is as clunky as it is ugly. Maybe it’s our obsession with fitting in, with solidarity, with familiarity that drives it, maybe it’s the sheer stupidity and unwillingness of most people to change a well-worn routine, and maybe companies know this to be the case and exploit it accordingly.The loss of my business probably won’t cause the corner Arco to shutter its doors (beyond their current program of once or twice a month, depending on the phase of the moon and the alignment of the planets), but it is a start, and a step for me in a better direction toward a better way of living.  

(Not songs of loyalty alone are these,


But songs of insurrection also,


For I am the sworn poet of every dauntless rebel the world over,
 

And he going with me leaves peace and routine behind him,


And stakes his life to be lost at any moment.) 

—Walt Whitman 

The hypocrisy of complaining about complainers.

As Mitch Hedberg quipped, “I’m against protesting but I don’t know how to show it.” Quichrbichn is an apparel company dedicated to action, rather than words…but how to get the point across without complaining about complainers? In the words of Edmund Burke, “It is a general popular error to imagine that the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.” This coming year is sure to be full of election year carping and bloviation. To counteract these ineluctable invectives, we suggest quiet action. Volunteer in your community. Help support a non-profit. Go a day without complaining. Give thanks for what you have. Serve someone else. And, if you just can’t help it, come here to complain about the complainers…and we’ll keep the lid on it. BUT, with your rant, provide a solution.