First off, I apologize to you, the reader, for this post. There are extremely important things happening in this world that are far more deserving of your time and attention than my silly little blog, and nothing could be more inane than what I’m about to rant about. Are you still there? I’m really really sorry.

Secondly, I want to express my gratitude and appreciation for those who have given me store gift cards over the years. Please do not be discouraged from giving them to me, though after reading this you may have second thoughts. I like free things, and presents are some of the best free things one can get.

Ok, on with the show.

I don’t like store gift cards.

My first point is simply a matter of principle. Gift cards are better for the stores than they are for consumers. I very much dislike the common store policy to not cash out the remainder of the card balance when the full balance is not used. It’s the store’s way of making sure that the consumer spends more than the face value of the card. If the consumer doesn’t spend the whole thing, the store simply pockets the difference. I always feel just a little bit swindled by gift cards for that reason.

Secondly, store cards can’t be pooled. My nephew just had a birthday party and he received several store cards from different stores. Wouldn’t it be cool for him to pool it all together and buy a big-budget item that he wouldn’t normally be able to afford? Plus his dad now has to cart him around town to redeem his loot, which of course is probably not such a bad thing since it will likely be that kind of “quality time” that we all need more of from our family members.

Thirdly, store cards mask the value of cash. Remember when you opened a birthday card and a bunch of cash fell out? That was WAY more fun than a sterile gift card. There is something special about the tactile quality of real currency. A gift of twenty dollars can be made to look bigger by giving twenty dollar bills. There is a sense of opportunity in cash that can’t be had from a store card. Cash is universal, whereas store cards are limiting. Which leads me to my fourth (and most outlandish) point:

Store cards discourage the free market. The store cards I receive typically come from three places: Home Depot (or Lowes), Best Buy, and Target. Cash allows me the choice of business whose services and/or products I want to consume. Store cards, being generally issued by stores with a large presence in the market, essentially remove smaller stores from the significant gift-giving segment of their market.

Lame, yes. But I couldn’t keep it inside me any longer.

On October 11, 2003, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW, http://www.ufcw.org/) ordered its union members to go on strike at Southern California supermarkets owned by Safeway, Kroger, and Albertsons. As of this writing (January 20, 2004), no agreement has been reached to end the strike and we continue to face the moral dilemma of whether to cross the picket line to shop at Vons, Ralphs, and Albertsons.

Faced with increased competition from price-cutting monstrosities like Wal*Mart, KMart, and Target, supermarket companies are looking for ways to cut costs and stay profitable. Increasing health care costs have forced the supermarket companies to re-evaluate their benefits packages, and cuts to workers’ health care packages prompted the union to strike.

I can see both sides to the argument. Companies need to cut costs in an increasingly competitive environment. Health care costs have recently skyrocketed uncontrolled. From a worker’s perspective, working at a supermarket is attractive because of the benefits package. As a consumer, I have found that employees at supermarkets are friendly and helpful, a characteristic that is disturbingly (and understandably) lacking at non-unionized, minimum-wage-paying discount stores.

The strike has caused me to evaluate my shopping experiences at supermarkets and discount stores. The supermarket experience is fairly relaxing, with courteous employees who are happy to help with questions. At a discount store, employees tend to be disgruntled, poorly trained, and would rather avoid their customers than help with questions. While this is not a nice portrait of a discount store employee, I believe it has more to do with their working environment than their personalities. And I have come to the conclusion that I am willing to pay a little more at the supermarket than to endure the third-world hell that I associate with Wal*Mart.

The union wants us all to believe that if the companies succeed in cutting their workers’ health care packages, “…every worker in America will be at risk of losing their health benefits” (quote taken from ufcw’s home page 1/20/04). I agree that America will soon (and perhaps is already) face a terrible health care crisis. But for me, cutting health care benefits is another slip down the slippery slope toward the Wal*Martization of America, an abhorrent trend that is symptomatic of the worst traits of Capitalism. This strike symbolizes the workers’ plight against this trend.

I am angry at both sides of the supermarket strike. After 3 months, the union’s strike has obviously not affected the companies as the unions had planned. These are large, national companies whose temporary loss of profit in Southern California will likely be absorbed by their national operations. The unions must therefore change their tactic. They should order a nationwide strike until this crisis is resolved.

The supermarket companies are just as culpable for not resolving this strike. They have resorted to shady tactics such as sharing revenues during the strike, a tactic that takes advantage of the union’s show of goodwill when they announced that workers would not picket Ralph’s stores.

Boths sides should be ashamed that they have not actively sought to continue negotiations throughout the strike. Most of the time of this strike has been spent at an empty table. I believe the strike is a crisis, but I don’t think the unions or the companies share this belief.

This lack of negotiation is what angers me most; I can’t believe the gall that both the union and company representatives have shown by not negotiating. The striking workers have given their time and income to walk the picket line for an ideal. On January 1st, their healthcare contract expired, leaving them without health insurance. Supermarket customers have been grossly inconvenienced during this time, which included the holidays when cooking large meals for family can be difficult enough without the logistical nightmare of not being able to shop at supermarkets. San Diego experienced the worst conflagration in its history, leaving thousands without homes. My family has experienced two deaths during the strike. During this time, the companies and the union has abandoned their obligations to the public. Meanwhile, the union and company representatives continue to earn their salaries for not doing their jobs.

Please end this strike. If it means paying a little bit more to keep the supermarket employees happy, then please pass the cost down to the consumer. I’m sure many agree that paying slightly more at the supermarket is a fair price to stop the Wal*Martization of America. After all, isn’t that how Capitalism is supposed to work?

One of my pet peeves at the office is when Joe Father or Annie Mother brings in things for us to buy to help support their little brat’s activities. This is not a new peeve that came about as I entered the working adult world; it is rather a feeling that is carried over from my childhood. When I was a kid, I participated in all sorts of fundraisers — from selling candy for the school band to selling tickets to the Cub Scout Jamboree. My parents did not help in my endeavor by peddling these unwanted and unnecessary trinkets to their coworkers. I went door to door, by myself, learning the fine art of the hard sell. I applaud my parents for doing so, because 1) this taught me a valuable work ethic and 2) my parents did not bring suffering to their coworkers. Unfortunately, I never really understood what it takes to be a good salesperson, and since most of my fundraising cohorts had obliging parents I was always outsold.

My Experiences with Fundraising

In the eighth grade, I was privileged to be accepted into the Gifted & Talented program at my middle school. Woo-hoo. The only thing I remember from this program was the fundraiser, in which we were pressured to sell $10 chocolate-peanut butter Easter eggs. One day, after school, when I probably should have been studying to keep my Gifted & Talented mind sharp (read: watching Thundercats on TV), I went around my block attempting to sell these eggs. Big surprise: not a single sell.

In another example of futility, I spent several hours one fine Saturday traipsing around the neighborhood attempting to sell, of all things, Cub Scout Jamboree tickets. I don’t remember the exact number of sells, but I know it was less than 5 and more like 2 — and those two were obviously pity sells.

Another debacle was experienced at the hands of my high school band’s pizza fundraiser. The idea was that we would sell pizza credits for 8 or 12 dollars (not sure of the exact dollar amount) and then one day we’d all stay after school to make the pizzas and deliver them to their recipients where they would heat the pizza up and eat it. Word on the street was that those who bought the pizzas were very happy with the product, but after another futile attempt in my neighborhood I only had 2 sells. Once again, these were pity sells.

All of these experiences had fatal flaws. I can’t think of anyone who wants to spend $10 on a chocolate-peanut butter Easter egg. Especially those who aren’t Christian. As for the Cub Scout Jamboree tickets: At $5 a pop (and this was in the early 1980s mind you), who in their right mind is going to want a ticket to see a bunch of Cub Scouts tying knots? Maybe the neighborhood pedophile might have some interest, but that subject will be discussed later. And finally, the pizza debacle was just too confusing. Payment in advance for a product whose delivery date is not certain and that you still have to cook once you get it? I think not.

The Pressure to Sell

One of the aspects of these fundraisers I remember is the tremendous pressure to sell. There was always a thin veil of a reward, such as prizes to the highest sellers. These prizes, of course, usually went to those fortunate children whose parents did the work for them by pressuring their coworkers into buying unnecessary fundraising crap.

In the Easter egg incident, I remember weekly Gifted & Talented meetings where all that was discussed was how far we were from our fundraising goal. They even gave me a quota that I failed to fill.

During the pizza debacle, I remember discussions during band practice about how poor we were at selling product, and how far we were from our fundraising goal. We were questioned how many we had sold in front of all of our classmates and made accountable for our lack of skill at selling nonexistent pizzas. Perhaps this was designed to build character, but in my case one who lacks character simply loses self esteem.

A Dangerous Walk

I am proud of my parents for insisting that I sell my wares on my own. However, it is simply not safe for a child to sell door-to-door alone. There has been a lot of media attention to child abductions lately, but this is not to say that pedophilia is new. I am thankful that I was lucky enough to avoid such a fate during my fundraising excursions and I hope that parents are learning to supervise their children when selling door-to-door. However, today’s economy makes it impossible to constantly supervise our children.

That being said, I find it disturbing that our schools and extra-curricular activities are promoting this dangerous activity for our children. Parents expect some amount of protection for their children when they go to school and I believe it’s irresponsible to expect children to participate in unsupervised door-to-door sales.

Who Really Benefits?

As a homeowner, I pay a boatload of extra taxes to live in my house. On top of the standard California property tax, our developer hatched a deal with San Diego County to tack on special “Mello Roos” taxes to help subsidize the added burden that our house puts on utilities and social services. I don’t like to pay these taxes, but I accept them since they supposedly help maintain a decent quality of life. Some of these extra taxes go to my local school system.

I don’t think it’s unfair to expect that the added taxes I pay helps our schools pay for their upkeep. However, on a weekly basis I find children participating in fundraising activities for their schools — selling door to door or harassing customers on their way out of the local grocery store. I am more than a little discouraged at the amount of money I spend in taxes only to find that schools are still relying on fundraising to get the funds they need.

Fundraising is a huge industry. Like any other large industry, it will protect itself at all costs. It markets itself to schools and non-profit institutions as a way to raise funds with products that people enjoy. In my experience, I have found fundraising products overly expensive and of questionable value. Generally, I would rather simply write a check to the organization rather than accept their tin of stale popcorn.

Supporting fundraising is a double-edged sword. Yes, I want the organizations that use fundraising to do well. But I find fundraising to be an avenue for depenency, especially for our school systems. Like any bureaucracy, educational departments demonstrate monetary needs by spending budget funds and demonstrating a need for more when necessary. If they rely on fundraising, they lock themselves out of any pool of funds that may be available in the future and therefore become dependent on fundraising for their monetary needs. Sports teams, music departments, libraries, and drama departments need equipment to sustain themselves. As a publicly funded institution, school departments should rely on the state for all of their funding. If they must rely on fundraising, then the decision makers higher up in the bureaucracy have failed in their duty to provide an adequate public school system.