see you at 7

Before there was texting and constant communication, making plans to meet was a bit more difficult and a lot less likely to end in no-shows. Before texts and constant communication, you met your friends when and where you said you would because you had no way to let them know you wouldn’t be arriving and not arriving made you an ass.

(Yes we had extenuating circumstances back then, but they were real, so they were rare.)

It’s amazing how quickly we forget the things that used to be day to day when their replacements arrive. We acclimate so well that we often forget what needed to happen before the latest tool or method replaces our old ones. And as much as I find modern communication amazing, I did get a kick out of this particular tidbit of social etiquette. In the same moment I was taken aback that someone had to write it down in a book because really, we should know this.

Be a good friend.  Just say Yes.  Or No.  (from Adulting)

To be fair it did make perfect sense when the MP3 player eclipsed the discman. I mean that thing sucked down disposable batteries, required either listening to the same CD over and over or trying to figure out how to carry a selection and it was kinda big – certainly didn’t fit in any pocket I have.

I recently read an article on the demise of pantyhose, which you might not know, specifically the flesh toned variety. They gained popularity pre World War 2, after a shift in foundation garment use and a rise in hemlines, and they really gained popularity after World War 2 because during the war all fabric supplies where used to make parachutes and the women were out of luck. Even my hippie-esque parents insisted that there were certain situations where hose were needed and tights wouldn’t do it. I even had a job in my 20’s that required hose as part of my uniform, and if I think hard about it, it was rather annoying as they required a blue hue that was not available at a low cost. Yes I didn’t have to buy clothes but did have a $20 a week pantyhose requirement, back when minimum wage was much more minimum. Having eschewed them since, I really didn’t notice that most department stores have slowly phased out their hosiery sections as styles changed. If the Duchess of Cambridge hadn’t been required to add hosiery to her official ‘look’, would anyone under 30 even know what they were? But 75 years was a good run for a fashion trend that wasn’t always so nice to wear. 

Anecdotally the codpiece had a 75 year run too.

OK, well I found it interesting.

After I read the pantyhose article I started to think about things that used to feel so essential to life that fell out of favour as trend or technology passed and may or may not have met their ultimate end. Records seemed to continue to have a strong solid following, but for the audiophile, there’s a sound quality that can’t be beat. CD’s continue to exist as people continue to insist on physical media but got rid of their record players. I haven’t seen a cassette in years. Well other than a handful I kept mostly for nostalgic reasons, most of which are homemade mixed tapes. Which I guess where replaced by playlists. But how do you give the person you’re crushing on a playlist?

Wristwatches is another one for me. I have three in a box on my dresser, and I’m fairly certain all three have dead batteries in them. In part the disuse was due to a cell phone and in part it was due to my constantly, accidentally leaving my watch on my desk at work because I took it off when it banged on the desk while I was typing. But it freed up my wrist for bracelets and I can always get the time on my phone. Yes the ‘smart’ technology has set their sights on a smart watch next, and since not everyone gave up on the watch, this’ll be a trend to ‘watch’! I don’t really see the point of the smart watch, but I’m in the minority I’m certain. In fact I had a discussion with a friend about this very subject and in her case she wears the same watch as a loved relation and finds it ties her emotionally to that relation whenever she looks at it. So in as much as the technology may be passé there are other, valid, reasons for hanging onto to something.

I still have an alarm clock, because I hate the idea of a phone in the bedroom. I do have a cassette player, but only because it’s part of my stereo. I still use pens because I like to do the suduko and the crossword in the newspaper on the weekend, which yes I still get on Saturdays and Sundays to read with coffee.

And what do we do every time this technology changes. Well for those of us who faithfully changed our music collections from records to cassettes to CD’s, we eventually stopped. Some of us hold yard sales or donate to charity. And the rest of hold onto whatever works for us until our favourite toys stop working. We all evolve at our own pace.

The other tidbit I liked from the same book. Which can also apply.

cord cutting, cash saving and technology

It sounds like a 3-guys-walk-into-a bar-intro; seemingly disparate things that shouldn’t work but somehow do.

After years of being in a ridiculous and dysfunctional relationship with Rogers I finally got fed up and cut the cable last fall.  It’s been a steep acceptance curve.  I will admit I would look at what movie I might get to watch on a Saturday night for quite some time, although if I’m really honest, the choice wasn’t that amazing.  I haven’t gone completely cold turkey but I’m planning to switch ISP’s and because my phone is with another larger telecom that is named after a bell, I may conceivably be Rogers free.

Fortunately ‘cord cutting’ is a pretty geeky endeavour and there’s nothing the geek community likes better than to explain how they did what they did, and since the internet is their mother-ship, well finding info wasn’t all that hard.  Granted long winded technical discussions of UHF, megahertz and how to assemble your own antenna were largely lost on me.  But the basics were simple; you need an antenna, a sweet spot, some height, patience and presto, free TV.  What it boils down to is realizing that this isn’t the be-all-end-all of entertainment but it’ll get you the goods. Mostly.  

Toronto is geographically ideal for over the air antennas due to its concave bowl shape and because of the proximity to the US chances are you’ll get a Buffalo station or two, but not necessarily all the time and probably not during a storm, mostly.  Height is to your advantage, so if you live in a tower, you’ll do better, but my ground floor apartment, due to the lack of nearby tall buildings does OK too.  And lastly remember the old ‘Fox viewing positions’ (yes I watched Married with Children), my experience is that these so-called flat omni-directional antenna’s have a very different definition of ‘omni’ than I understand it to be.  Needless to say moving your antenna is necessary.  Fortunately it’s the size of piece of printer paper so as long as it’s not mounted this is pretty easy.

What did this all get me?  Well for $45 and a lot of time - don’t get me started on many trips to Future Shop due to their policy to always sell the customer the most expensive thing they have to offer – I save about $65 a month in cable fees of which I paid for about 300 channels I never watched.  In my opinion, if you’re not watching sports, paid cable isn’t for you.  And yes if you really want to watch what you want to watch you need some sort of streaming set up.  But I need baby steps.  Plus I have a really prohibitive Internet allowance for the moment so we make do with what is on and binge watching titles borrowed from the library.

I started this post because I really hate Rogers and I’m so close to ending our relationship, ideally forever, that I wanted to brag it up.  But let me be clear, I like watching TV and cord cutting isn’t for everyone.  There’s not a lot of selection, there’s no PVR (well you can purchase an OTA PVR but I haven’t) and you’re back to watching things when they are on, or not at all, or later, via streaming.  In the midst of waiting for my new computer to arrive so I can connect everything up to the TV, CRTC announces that they’re about to make some changes to cable TV in Canada, so we’ll see what they’ve come up with, soon.

Bottom line, cable companies are scrambling.  Millennial’s, and younger Gen Y aren’t even starting with cable.  In fact a recent article (I can’t remember where I saw it) stated that TV’s aren’t really a mainstay of dorm rooms anymore.  These generations stream on their computers or use Netflix.  I don’t know the stats on Gen X and the Boomers, but I’d guess they skew slightly higher on cable usage with some cord cutting as time goes on, or their kids set them up as the case may be.

If you’re paying attention, cable’s trying hard to keep you tuned in.  More American shows, more ‘features’ that were never available in cable, attempts at exclusive programming to keep people lured in, but is it a losing battle?  I assume so.  I also believe there’s opportunity to change the business model.  On demand models like Crave and Shome, if it was not required to also have a $40 a month cable package could be enticing.  But they’re not offered.

So what was my point?  Well first off, get stuffed Rogers.  The cord cutting revolution is fully underway, as in; I’m way late to the game.  Internet is on its way to being considered a utility and it is changing our ways.  Smart is the new sexy, although we do have to watch out for those eavesdropping TV’s.  

The news came this afternoon and it was rather anti-climactic.  A so-called ‘skinny’ option that will offer less and cost less; and a pick-and-pay plan which will end up costing you more, available for you in just 18 short months.

so i was wrong - not really a post

Target is out. Turns out treating Canada like a podunk backwater instead of the geographically challenging but sophisticated market it is didn't go well. I really thought they'd stick it out, proving that I really don't understand these mass-market general merchandise retailers.

Also Tilley. Not out, but who knows what this will become. While I'm definitely not in their target market, it's always tough to see a great Canadian success story come to some sort of end.

follow up to on a more serious note - not really a post post

The good news being reported on Torontoist is that pedestrian fatalities are way down this year.  23 deaths in 2014, which is still too high but considering it was over 60 in 2013, I'm thinking we'll see a significant reduction year over year.  The trouble with observing daylight saving time is that in November gets dark early, black is the favourite colour for Canadian outerwear, which, when combined means drivers can't/don't see pedestrians. Which makes me wonder if resurrecting the purse 'hanger' attachments that were so popular a few years ago, again but with reflective elements, might be a winning idea?!

what is the target?

I remember the exact moment I decided I was OK with paying more.  Prices at Payless had slowly crept up.  $29.99 became $34.99, until eventually it became $44.99.  It was the same day I found a pair of Alfred Sung heels on sale for $46.99.  Sure they’re a licensed line meant exactly for me, a mall shopper willing to pay up to $100 for a pair of shoes, but more likely to purchase them if they’re under $50.  And suddenly the smell of pleather and glue had lost its luster.  If you’re wondering how I could be talking about prices increasing at Payless, remember the all encompassing raison d’etre, ‘because Canada.’ 

After years of anticipation, Payless had finally made a run at the border.  Our, now seemingly innocent, dreams of having fun, inexpensive, trendy shoes was about to be realized.  Remember this is before Winners, the Canadian version of TJ Maxx had really impacted the market.  Department stores were slowly dying off and H&M wasn’t even a thought.  We loved it.  In fact I still have some of those early purchases.  The quality was OK, not practically paper and prone to dry rot, as it would later become; and picking up a fun pair of shoes you knew would only last a season for under $30 was acceptable.

Fast forward through the Americanization of the local mall, to Target; another destination Canadians make an effort to visit when we’re in the ol’ US of A.  A wide variety of offerings of the low level mixed merchandise retailer, but I personally love to see what they might offer in fun accessories and make up we can’t get here at home.  Coupled with the closing of Zellers, the Canadian version of Wal-mart before, and for awhile, after, we had Wal-mart, and it seemed like the opportunity was golden. 

Before I start sounding off on what I think went wrong, and what I read went wrong, let me be clear that I am not really in this type of store’s target audience.  First and foremost because they lack urban locations, and short of the rare occasion, such as moving, I don’t really need enough of this type of merchandise to merit what is generally about a 90 minute round trip on the bus to visit these stores.  I rarely go to Wal-mart.  I hadn’t been in Zeller’s for years, and once Joe Fresh started selling what I tried to find inexpensively, i.e. pajama’s and workout gear, I really never went back.  I buy my vitamins at the drugstore and my cleaning stuffs at the grocery store, and I can’t think of any other items I might need a mixed merchandise merchant. 

But Target.  A friend and I went to a soft opening.  And it wasn’t great. 

Yes, the expectation was that the store would not be at full capacity.  That ‘things’ needed to be worked out, but racks and racks were empty.  Very little variation in both stock offerings and floor layout from Zeller’s, the former occupant.  And the worst bits, pricing not all that competitive when compared to other Canadian retailers and no online shopping. 

They claimed they were just starting out.  They hadn’t figure out inventory supply chains.  They were ironing out the wrinkles.  It would get better.

That was more than a year ago.

We’ve all seen the news.  ‘Lower success and financials than expected’. ‘Did not go a hoped’.  ‘Net losses overall, because Canada’.  And yet the issues of areas of the stores still without stock, another big one, the lack of items available in the US, not brought into Canada, for reasons unknown and not explained, the pricing still not competitive and still no online shopping.

Incidentally, while away recently in the US I was able to find both an urban Target, City Target, as well as preview my potential purchases, wait for it, online.  

The City Target on State Street in Chicago - where I mostly went to use the bathroom, and to go through THAT doorway.

Does Target have a chance in our home and native land?  Probably.  There’s a lot of money to invest and a lot of money already spent to pull up the stakes and admit defeat.  But attention needs to be paid to the consumer and their expectations.  Which, arguably, are now lowered, so how hard can it be to correct this misstep?  First off, if your main competition is Wal-mart, and you aren’t going to try to beat them on price, then you better offer something better, of more quality, or not available elsewhere.  

And if they want me as a customer?  Well City Target is a good step.  And so is online shopping.

on a more serious note

I had a little panic attack at Yorkdale mall today.  In the throes of being overheated and tired of trying to find my way out of my least favourite mall, I talked to someone who was empathetic to my plight, and offered a joke about the parking lot being even worse than the mall.  For a moment I was completely confused – all I could think was why would I have to deal with the parking lot.  And then I remembered.  I was in the suburbs and as a non-car owner; I was the odd woman out.

A few springs ago I became aware that a lot of people where trying to hit me with their cars.  At first I thought I was being a bit paranoid, until my other pedestrian friends noted the same thing.  

There was no real rhyme or reason to the attempts.  The spring seemed to be the worst, but not exclusively. Right hand turns seemed to be an issue, but crossing in a crosswalk, or at a light didn't seem to stop the issue.  Rolling stops, and playing chicken with me was also a situation I didn’t want to be involved with. Think about it, you’re in a 2 ton vehicle, and I’m wearing my coat.  People - drivers, were trying to hit me with their cars.

At the start of 2014, I found evidence the supported my suspicions.  And an editorial that I agree with; where is the demand, the absolute urgency, for some sort of revelatory response to the fact that in 2013 pedestrian fatalities outnumbered murders in Toronto.  There were 63 traffic related fatalities in 2013, a year where the murder rate hit the mid 50’s, most of these incidents in the last 6 months of the year.  This is people being killed by cars when walking, on their bikes or motorcycles and includes victims of car accidents.  But by and large the most are pedestrians, hit at wide, signaled, suburban cross walks, by cars.  And more than half of them seniors. 

What does this mean?  Well first off that I was right.

Secondly it means that all of us, pedestrians, drivers, people who figure out how to time lights and how to make traffic flow need to take a good long look at how we move everyone in this city.  That all modes of transport; and feet are a mode; are given consideration in planning but also in our day to day.  As city dwellers continue to eschew driving in record numbers, choosing instead to live and work in cores and only rent or car share when needed, we need to encourage drivers to pay more attention as they may soon be outnumbered.

This is a not something we can legislate away.  This is a course of action that must occur at a grassroots level.  We all have to pay more attention to what we do.  But if I can, as a pedestrian, instill this one thing in drivers and before I go off on a tangent to say that I personally feel all vehicular misdemeanors should be tackled by forcing drivers to use the TTC for 90 days and learn how easy they really have it – if you’re in your car – you’re going to get there faster.  So give us pedestrians a break.

If you’re really keen on the deets… http://torontoist.com/2014/01/torontos-bad-year-for-traffic-fatalities/

memories of Dave Nichol

Dave Nichol passed away over the weekend.  For those who are newer Dave Nichol is the reason you all know Galen Weston.  The so called 'pitchman', but really a bit of a pioneering marketer who brought us what we all know as a store brand before there really was one.  First with No Name and then with President's Choice - which continues to be the mainstay of my day to day sustenance. 

There was always a well worn Insiders Report in my childhood bathroom and I still take a good look at what I might try next when they arrive.     

or in that direction

Not that I fancy Galen Weston actually reads my blog.  But just a few days after my last post, Loblaws company announces their new format for small urban stores, 'The Box by No Frills'.  Essentially a small, 10,000 sq. ft. version of No Frills - your average No Frills is 25,000 sq. ft.  The tests run in Calgary to see how the market responds.  To be a tad elitist, what plays in Calgary may not translate here, but I'm just one voice.