pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on mon 30 jun 03
adventure?
Hi Janet,
The resolutions for me arise from the following
appreciations, or, in my appreciations of the appreciations,
as may be...
My appreciations are my Life.
Business as it is called, as a term, is a successor to the
notion of occupation, or, of something one is occupied or
'busy' with.
Business is Life...or, neither may exceed nor eclipse nor
displace the other in our
practice of them.
Or, business may not be separated from Life, except by
emotional violence to one's self, and thence to both, or, in
such psychosis as finds that violence satisfying.
Life may be observed to consist of
transactions...transactions often find mediacy in
behaviours.
Behaviour is 'what' we do.
Making things, producing things and the how-we-do-so is or
are 'behaviour'.
Behaviour is deeds.
The qualities of those transactions as are mediated through
behaviour, or appreciated variously by the respective
participants, tends to be so according to the intentions,
conditions, insight, grace, etc. of the use they make of the
intelligence they have to Live by.
Behaviours do not lie in the same manner as words or
pictures may be relied upon to do. Interpretations of
behaviour may be subject to conditional loyalties, or, may
consist of lies as well.
Hence, one may infer more nearly, the actual intentions, in
an appreciation of things expressed in behaviour, than one
is likely to do in the apprehension of abstract words or
pictures.
The language and logic of the Heart is not understood by the
languages or logics resorted to in it's absence, or, in
one's absence from it.
Our present global situation as goes under the guise of
'business', is a heartless waste of everyone and everything,
as generates some compensatory distractions and appeasements
for itself and it's vistims ( read, itself).
The import of this has varied and many leveled consequences
and results...among which, is found the revision of the
manner in which serfs are made and maintained. And, it has
been found best if they may be induced or coerced to
maintain themselves in their station, imagining it to be
something-else, to save their betters the troubles of having
to deal with them with more frequent corrections.
One's appreciation of these matters allows the 'rest' to
follow as neatly as any other algorithms may do...
One way or the other.
Yes?
Phil
lasvegas
----- Original Message -----
From: "Janet Kaiser"
To:
Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2003 5:41 PM
Subject: The lone maker/trader: 100% businesslike or
philanthropic adventure?
> You know I find it very interesting thinking about being
(and succeeding
> as) a solitary maker or lone trader, especially when
listening to responses
> from individual makers/traders about what they consider
good business
> practice, customer care, PR and the like.
>
> What is most noticeable and even surprising, is how
everyone tacitly
> accepts, implements and actively employs many of the
practices which Big
> Business has introduced or had enforced on it by
government over the years.
> BB has worked hard at increasing the "feel good" factor
and customer
> confidence in individual companies and their products...
>
> Yes, they and their marketing departments have had to work
at achieving
> what every lone maker/trader should automatically command
or have at their
> fingertips: Universal trust in the product/service and
ever faithful
> clients who naturally repeat buy at every opportunity...
>
> Of course we all have to comply with external
regional/national consumer
> and trading laws & regulations, but beyond that there is a
prevailing
> business climate which varies from country to country, but
in general is
> based on the strategies developed in the USA.
Nevertheless, it would be
> naive to believe that companies and BB in general share
all the same ideals
> and ethics as the individual maker/trader.
>
> As non of us work in a void, we are also consumers
ourselves, so has this
> acceptance and adoption of what is now considered "normal
practice" when
> dealing with and in the manner of multinational companies
coloured our own
> way of doing business? Are our own expectations (as
consumers) and business
> practices (as lone makers/traders) compatible? Are we wise
to go along with
> either / both without question and a considerable amount
of thought? Simply
> put -- Are we attempting to run with the hares and the
hounds? Or do our
> hearts rules our heads?
>
> Have we been manipulated into thinking and acting as
consumers instead of
> being hard-headed business policy makers and practioners?
If not, are we
> always strictly businesslike and true to the principles of
the market
> economy as it works today? Or are we half-baked
philanthropists playing at
> being Movers and Shakers? About as much to do with the
real world as
> kiddies playing Doctors and Nurses has to do with working
as a medical
> professional in a hospital?
>
> As you know, I am no business person, however I cannot
help but wonder
> about a few specifics (please forgive any incorrect
vocabulary and/or
> jargon):
>
> 1) Does everyone who has a "no questions asked" refund
policy fracture in
> the cost of replacing goods which customers return and if
so what
> percentage of your annual turnover is it?
>
> 2) Do you know what your losses through wastage like theft
and fraud were
> over the past year / 5 years / 10 years? Have you been
able to cover these
> costs by rational cost counting and price adjustment or
have you ignored
> this specific item in your accounts?
>
> 3) Does everyone include a money-losing product or item to
encourage
> customers to buy products with higher profit margins? If
so, how do you
> accommodate the losses generated? By restricting the
number of individual
> pieces "on offer" or by exponentially increasing profit
margins on other
> items/lines?
>
> 4) Do you offer any "buy two get one free" type deals? If
so, are they
> individually priced to accommodate the "free" item or have
they already
> become a loss-making line?
>
> 5) Do you always / sometimes / never accommodate clients
when asked for
> discount for "bulk buying"? Do you take all the scenarios
into account
> when pricing, deciding which clients are going to receive
"preferred
> customer status" and so on? In other words do you have a
formal discount
> policy in place and can you project the cost accurately
over the next year?
>
> 6) When refunding items returned by clients are you able
to correctly
> itemise all the costs involved? Are you able to project
these costs over
> tonight! This sort of subject usually has me lying awake
ruminating for
> hours, when I should be in Never Never Land. Oh, well...
>
> the whole financial year? If so, do you have a mechanism
in place which
> triggers readjustment of pricing to accommodate these
costs?
>
> I have a lot of other questions, but don't want to
overload my brain
> Sincerely
>
> Janet Kaiser
pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on mon 30 jun 03
adventure? ( Two )
Hi Janet,
Ohhh...just woke up and first foggy-groggy Coffee...so a
little rough I'd expect, but I
will run
through your questions here, and I will keep my rambles
brief. Was to-bed at 3:00, then at 6:00 A.M. it was still
warm enough in here for
sweat to be rollling off my forehead as I try'd and not-much
suceeded
to sleep...sheesh!
Good questions here, nice thought provokers...
I think...
If we do not like things as-they-are...we may fight them and
loose, maybe not every time, or if not every time, then
overall, it will kill us regardless. It will live in us
fighting itself.
We become it.
That is how 'they' got that way. That error in judgement.
What we can do is say 'yes' to something else, something as
is maybe in the spaces in-between things..there are allways
paths as go..in-between or through things...seeing them is
sometimes the province of the Heart.
"No" has it's uses...more-so, saying 'yes' to something
else.
We say 'no' when we lack the wit to know what to say 'yes'
to.
We get what we say 'yes' to...whether we know it or not.
Thus may we learn...at whatever pace we may...
There is maybe not much else to learn.
The rest is digression...
And, as an initial digression...or elaboration...
I think the resolution lay in what we think so called
Business is...or what we think Life is, or, in the
appreciation (or it's lack) that, there is only Life, and
business is
something we do, as, we do AS our Life, and 'in' Life. We
respect Life or not, in what we do and how we do it.
Business is (about) behaviour, deeds, occupation, Living,
what we
do...our
transactions and the how we do them...our intentions...our
discernments, our capacities to Love in how we do so, and as
we
may have
manners...maybe our freedom TO 'Live', if we claim it, and
the kinds of 'boundaries' we may make to define
things...And, who defines what for whom and how-so they
do-so.
Transactions are the business OF Life...and so are
'definitions'.
To seperate 'business' from 'life' is psychosis.
Who defines what for whom is very important.
For the most part...it is 'how' so called 'reality'...is
'made'...
...the violence accepted unto one's self first, makes the
violence unto others an easier familiarity and compensation.
It's disguises are legion.
Psychosis in
present considerations is a familiarity with, and preference
for, the satisfactions of violence as stimulation, as embues
other
cameoflague modes of being...pretexts for itelf and it's
interests as that...masks...
People who seperate them (business and Life, Life and Love,
Love and Sex, Love and anything)
may be seen none-the-less, to
actually practice them the same anyway, that is to practive
'business' (or whatever) as they actually practice
'life'...and for the
worse, too, in some way or other...even as the behaviours
of other psychotics may be
seen to have a consistancy as arise from their underlieing
acceptances and dynamic conflict-politics and
appreciations...or the how they labour under them...under
those 'forces' or strains and distortions and
dis-associations and
impatience...(avoidences)...pathogenesis...on and on...
'Politics' are the relations between 'bodies'...we may have
the courtesy to suppose these 'bodies' are the outer
expressions of actually or potentially sentient Minds.
We do what we do...(period)
Mostsly, so called 'business' is transactions of pretexts
whose occupation are exchanges of the currencies of
avoidance and anxiety, and the
anxiety as is the product of violence
internalized...realized...thence projected onto things and
events as 'reality'...encountered as someone else's
'reality'...on and on...
Now more below - amid the writ...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Janet Kaiser"
> You know I find it very interesting thinking about being
(and succeeding
> as) a solitary maker or lone trader, especially when
listening to responses
> from individual makers/traders about what they consider
good business
> practice, customer care, PR and the like.
Indeed...
> What is most noticeable and even surprising, is how
everyone tacitly
> accepts, implements and actively employs many of the
practices which Big
> Business has introduced or had enforced on it by
government over the years.
> BB has worked hard at increasing the "feel good" factor
and customer
> confidence in individual companies and their products...
I do not...I do not think this may be said of me.
And...maybe not all 'big-business' had or has been steeped
in the same
pot of sewage. In the 19th. and early 20th. Centuries, there
was much more variety in how People Lived or lived...there
was a better gamut.
Some very cool and inspired Businesses existed and did
wonderful and charming things, and did them along side the
worst opressions and meanest rote brutalities. Little of
that variety remains or is 'allowed' to. The worst is what
has been kept, if disguised in new mystifications...
Generally, big-business big-government intends to feed on,
or, make money on, the pretext
or expedient of a product or service.
The master they serve is their poverty, as seeks
compensation
in the greed for controll, as may be for money, or the
controll of money, and their
greed for how to get it as well as what they will do with
it...( as buy more poverty, for example...buy more
'faith'...)
Other considerations come distantly second or third or not
at all, or at least not past what grudgeingly is conceeded
from them to bigger or more effective bullies, or their
mutual co-operations.
Whatever the pretext as may be employed...whatever the
collusions about it.
A very different matter from an ingenuous interest in the
quality of
one's Living, one's deferences, one's Conscience, one's
Aesthetic sense IN a 'positive' way...or one's appreciations
or confluence in Life
in benovelent ways, in Loving ways, or, in ways as may defer
to Life in
'positive' appreciations of it IN Love and manners and
fun...to socialize Lovingly or in Faith...
> Yes, they and their marketing departments have had to work
at achieving
> what every lone maker/trader should automatically command
or have at their
> fingertips: Universal trust in the product/service and
ever faithful
> clients who naturally repeat buy at every opportunity...
Called in many of it's instances, pandering, referencing,
enableing,
gratuitous or other condescentions, bait-and-switch, selling
identities as commodity, or renting them 'out' to tennents
( who will be evicted if they do not pay on
time)...banality, banalification, violence, and or
exploitation of the gullible or weak, imposition, imposture,
exploitation of the
compromised, compromise by stress...stress as conflict...and
induceing conflict as stress for a price to then exploit
it's
compromise, and that, for a price too.
In essence, they want
to sell you something, more than they care about 'what' that
something is, or the kind-of-use you may have for it...or to
what that use defers to so far as you are concerned.
It defers to them....
They will sell you disease if you will buy it.
They care about their 'use' for you. You have no other
'value' and neither does anyone or anything else.
What 'pate' is to the Goose...or to the 'chef'...or to the
packing company...or to the store. IS about the kinds of
careing as attend...and the deferences to who.
Slavery was a big 'business' and remains so in cheery old
Africa whence it muchly came, and remains in force elsewhere
too somewhat...AS 'slavery' with no disguises.
Had it not been merely sublimated unto forms as fool the
gullible, it would remain a profit-maker in it's more
unambiguous forms in more places.
Without 'slaves' there would be no 'slavery'.
If we do not know that, we are fools.
> Of course we all have to comply with external
regional/national consumer
> and trading laws & regulations,
No we do not.
Nor should we if we elect to have self respect.
We should refer or defer to our Conscience, our knowledge
and our common-sense, or, as best we may, anyway while
knowing the difference, too.
Or, how different is NOT doing so ( not defering to
Conscience) from...'slavery'? ( indeed by
degree, it is...and...by degrees it isn't, too...)
Is it our discernments and insistance on self-posession, and
the kind of self posession we elect as makes the
'difference'?
We 'may' comply, or not as we see fit.
'Have-to' only if we forget the notion of 'may'...or our
abilities to claim it. Or to deal with or evade the
consequences, if any, or from whom.
It is very conditional...
...it all is...(very parenthticly 'conditional'...very
negotiated...allways...)
If we learned or agreed not to see it as such, THAT had
been 'negotiated' as well...we sold our memories and
discernments...we may revise the
'contracts'...or break them...we may buy them back for
'free'.
To take the 'conditions' at face value, or to be
complaiscent about them...is 'moral' if not more-so
'spiritual' decline or suicide.
Freedom unclaimed is subjegation unto tyrrany...especially
IF one is being bullied...or thinks they will be.
AND is negotiable, as too, as are the definitions of the
terms
as define or implement what statutes 'say'...or what we
think they
say...or what others say they say, or what they may be made
TO say, no matter 'what' they
'say'...
Much more up-for-grabs than almost anyone may suppose.
...don't believe me? Talk with people who know HOW to
negotiate...(enron comes to mind, but anything for that
matter where deals are made) it is not merely 'words'...it
is 'transactions'.
Done well...it is (invisable) in-visable...or, it IS visable
IF
you see it...if you do not, it is not...
Deals run the 'law' and the 'law' runs the kinds of deals as
may be made...it is all about 'deals', agreements,
transactions...
It is all 'business'...it is all Life or 'life'...it is all
transactions... ('Life' being NOT banalification...'life'
being banalification, 'faith' is 'in' banalification, Faith
is Freedom and Love of Freedom, and Love of Love for that
matter...and good manners therebye)...it is all transactions
and negotiations,
one way or another, seen as such or not...
We do what we do...period.
Administration of Justice, or 'Law' so called...is...in
practice...'transactions' and 'negotiations'...they go as
they go according TO the agreements made in the interest the
parties have or the
skill they have TO transact and negotiate...'period'.
> but beyond that there is a prevailing
> business climate which varies from country to country, but
in general is
> based on the strategies developed in the USA.
Nevertheless, it would be
> naive to believe that companies and BB in general share
all the same ideals
> and ethics as the individual maker/trader.
Essentially they could care less what they sell you, so long
as you buy it, and the penalties or usurpations from bigger
or more effective gangs do not
over bully them.
Sometimes one may sell them something too...as one
may...whatever it is.
> As none of us work in a void, we are also consumers
ourselves,
Indeed...and again, in 'caps', INDEED!..."IN-DEED"...! Yes,
and it is 'in'...our 'deeds' (to overlabour it a little...)
It is IN what we 'do'...IS what we 'do'...what-we-DO...what
we ACTUALLY do. What we accept, what we say 'yes' to...
...if only we bothered really, REALLY doing something (more)
with it...!
Doing something with that! If only we KNEW that...! - really
knew it...
The 'world' (that is the banalification, the degredation of
World) we have now IS what people 'bought'...what
people 'did'...what people 'do'...what people agreed to...it
is a 'verb'...it is
invented every moment mostly out of 'habit'...which is
'faith'..not high-faith maybe, but 'faith' none-the-less.
Complaiscency is 'faith'...surrender is
'faith'...stupifaction is 'faith'...death is cellular
'faith'.
'people' is banalified Human Beings...dehumanized and
degraded Mammal
creatures...and those taught to do it to themselves as well
as to others.
Faith or FAITH is something else...Faith is Freedom...Faith
IS Love.
People are something
'else' from 'people'...Human Beings are something
else...Love is something else from 'love'...
Mostly, they bought 'death' because they were shamed and
coerced to
surrender their honor and sense, so then, they did not want
to be inconvenienced by Living Life with things stuck in
their craws, or prefered
to avoid the anxieties of 'confrontation'...or of throwing
up...things in
themselves first, and things around them second.
> so has this
> acceptance and adoption of what is now considered "normal
practice" when
> dealing with and in the manner of multinational companies
coloured our own
> way of doing business?
I do what I would have essentially done whether the bastards
existed or
not...if maybe rather less of it over the years, and less of
it presently, oweing to how circumstances
inhibit or exclude things more than not...or, as much as I
can, or may, anyway...according to my wit or courage or
Faith or 'faith' to do so...according to my 'confidence' and
Confidence (Faith) 'in' Life...in me-as-Life...Life as
me...on and on...I do what I do...
For that matter, I'd be happy enough if some Comet hit and
we got knocked back into the paleolithic once the dust
settled. I liked that World...I knew my way around just
fine.
I'd be fine...I'd get along just dandy, thank you...
I'd be a happy boy...you would not hear one 'complaint' from
me.
As it is, I abide...and am a happy boy regardless...if not
'about' the same things, maybe, then about such as I
may...and there is plenty about which I 'may'...no matter
what.
> Are our own expectations (as consumers) and business
> practices (as lone makers/traders) compatible?
Compatible with 'big-business' (read 'government' as a
synonym) as it IS? No, absolutely not.
Visit a 'meat-packing' plant sometime...you will see my
'point'...it is the consumer's fate, more or less, anmd, a
fait-accomplee ( forgive me, I do not remember how to spell
that!) or, as
they want them TO be, anyway...and, as they are willing TO
be, too...more-or-less...we get 'canned'...and buy 'canned'
eachothers and 'things' and 'nouns' and so on...the Goose
from whom the 'pate' is taken...is us all.
LIFE made into packaged 'nouns'...
> Are we wise to go along with
> either / both without question and a considerable amount
of thought?
We are made into it, we get dehumanized, we make ourselves
'into' serfs and slaves and products and commodities,
if we do 'not' fight it with every
ounce of vigilance, wit and energy we have...or, if we do
not choose something else, something 'better'.
We fight it best to say 'yes' to some-thing-else...to Love
maybe, or to Life...our Hearts know the way...if we go
'there' we can see from There.
> Simply
> put -- Are we attempting to run with the hares and the
hounds? Or do our
> hearts rules our heads?
My 'head' seems to be on it's worse day, a better 'heart'
than what any big-business or governmant I am aware of has
for itself.
My ass is a better 'heart' for that matter, than they have,
can find, or would honor in Deeds...
Hell, my shoe is, for that matter...it is less exsanguine in
it's way...and more 'moist' even, and warm...
> Have we been manipulated into thinking and acting as
consumers instead of
> being hard-headed business policy makers and practioners?
The kind of 'consumer' we are...the erudition or conscience
or discernments we bring to the task IS the difference...IS
our Lives...is how we Live...is what we Live...
All Creatures are consumers.
Trees are consumers...microbes are consumers...on and
on...we all consume and are
consumed...
...LIFE is transactions...we either pay attention or we do
not. The kind of attention we pay, and to what we pay it,
is what we have for our Lives no matter what we are 'in', or
even so far as other-people's-lives and what they 'do'...as
we must deal with one way or another.
We are innurred and dazed so far as any sense of 'what' Life
is, or what is ours to do anything with...one must be
careful what one 'sells'...trades, gives away...it might
just have been our selves.
We have what they gave us TO 'have', or rather, what they
sold us...people 'choose' from that 'menu'...like
'mcdonalds'...there's your 'menu', now what do you want?
We are lulled into being 'property'...we accept
consolations...cover-stories, sops, false issues,
made-by-others of 'reality', false
rewards for loyalties to that...it is insideous...it is
deadly. It is innurred to itself AS that...it is hateful to
Life and to our own Livingness.
It is irresponsible...
> If not, are we
> always strictly businesslike and true to the principles of
the market
> economy as it works today?
Well, just 'how' does it work?
How does IT work? - 'how' fish-in-a-barrel seek
consolation, amusement and distraction? - or cannot or do
not appear to
remember that there was ever, or could ever be...something
else, anything else...or what they'd do if not "IN" a
barell?
One thing about that...they don't swim any too far, do they?
They 'adapt'...and no longer know how hemmed in they are.
At least an actual 'fish' if turned loose, WILL swim
away...'people' will claw their way back into...the
'barrell'...
...what we are used to...is NOT thinking...NOT feeling, Not
knowing...or
not doing so in defference 'to'...what is outside the
'barrell', what was or might have
been ours...or, 'to' Life...we let business-government and
their (reciprocal) 'products' (read, eachother for that
matter)
define for us
what 'life' is, what and who we are, and the consequences
and the spiritual diminution follow nicely...from their
views, nothing worth seeing can be seen. Nothing worth
thinking can be thought...nothing worth living can be lived.
Consolations are offered, 'sold' as may appease and
distract...
Once 'there' the perspectives of there become the
landscape...the delusional captive domesticated primate zoo
landscape, the fun-house of the
circus...there is beer and peanuts and excitements...
it is all over but for it's own not-getting-it, it's own
amnesia, to defer to
handy distractions and consolations for a loss as is not
anylonger cogently apprehended or imaginable.
It deals with 'what' it has...what it CAN 'have'...it
rejects the rest, or does so as not being 'real'...or as
being 'wrong', or as something it cannot 'have'...but it
never says 'why' it is wrong, or why it cannot have them, or
does not do so very clearly, nor will it, either.
> Or are we half-baked philanthropists playing at
> being Movers and Shakers?
The hell with philanthropists, and with movers and shakers.
Without a captive herd, who the hell would they be? One way
or the other?
They stirr the fish-in-the-barrell...or drop things in
there, or plop goodies in there for the fish to make poop
out of.
They do not get far with me, and in any other context, they
would not get far with anybody.
How did the get what they have to 'give'?
> About as much to do with the real world as
> kiddies playing Doctors and Nurses has to do with working
as a medical
> professional in a hospital?
The 'real world'?
The 'real world' in which they live IS one of self
validateing psychotic delusion, and heartless, innurred
alienation
energized by, and feeding off of it's own or others
violence's effects.
They are little better than 'kiddies' playing, but for this
difference, they do not 'play' in an imaginative sense, in
an affectionate sense, in a tender sense, in a vulnerable
sense, in a transcendant sense, in an innocent sense, in a
dreamy sense...and,
they do great harm as goes unrecognised and unchallenged.
They get 'paid' to do it by their victims...they pay
themselves.
> As you know, I am no business person, however I cannot
help but wonder
> about a few specifics (please forgive any incorrect
vocabulary and/or
> jargon):
>
> 1) Does everyone who has a "no questions asked" refund
policy fracture in
> the cost of replacing goods which customers return and if
so what
> percentage of your annual turnover is it?
I have had a return rate of less than one tenth of one
percent over the whole time of my having ever made things.
Meaning almost 'nothing' what-so-ever had ever been
'returned'.
If someone has broken something, or, used something beyond
it's intended and reasonable purpose, or some inaccountable
breakage had occurred, I am interested to
know as much as I can about that, and I deal with it as
careingly as I may. I go out of my way to do so, or it is my
'way' to do so.
I may be generous, and I may be fair as
please me to do, but, never less than fair.
What is 'fair'?
Give me the facts and I will tell you.
> 2) Do you know what your losses through wastage like theft
and fraud were
> over the past year / 5 years / 10 years? Have you been
able to cover these
> costs by rational cost counting and price adjustment or
have you ignored
> this specific item in your accounts?
Some days are better than others...I make it all up as I go,
or as is consistant with my intentions over the long haul as
well as of the day. They are the same. I get bye...
We have our days and the substance of our days.
And maybe that is about all we do have, too...
...one may ask, "What IS the substance of my days?"
> 3) Does everyone include a money-losing product or item to
encourage
> customers to buy products with higher profit margins? If
so, how do you
> accommodate the losses generated? By restricting the
number of individual
> pieces "on offer" or by exponentially increasing profit
margins on other
> items/lines?
I do not do this, but, I am aware that if I rationally
elected those prices as really do reflect the time and work
as goes into similarly or identicly priced things I
make...well, some of them would be half again as much more
than they are. I did not do this oweing to how it seemed
cumbersome or petty to have seventy different prices instead
of eight
or nine...(for the Tools, anyway...) I err on the side of
the lower price...of the 'Golden Rule'...
> 4) Do you offer any "buy two get one free" type deals? If
so, are they
> individually priced to accommodate the "free" item or have
they already
> become a loss-making line?
For the 'right' goods, I might...otherwise no...
I had a very 'sucessful' Good Humor route once..an 'Ice
Cream' route...
I did what I felt like...had 'specials'...had lots of
'regular' customers, and too...gave-sold 'em to Down's
Syndrome boys and girls and men and women, old, sick,
retarded, deformed,
drunk, strung-out, hung-over, or whatever men and women as
never could
get to the curb in time before...they - some of them - took
FOREVER to get out to the curb...'sold' them the
'Nutty-buddy' or what, for the sticky stuck-together
spit-covered 'nickle-and-two-pennies' they had in their
dimpled-knuckle'd, damp or palsied liver-spotted hands...
I liked them, they liked me...everyone liked me, every one
had fun. Toothless grins, matted hair...on and on...Seven
days a week, four to six hours a day...no one
before on that 'route' had ever HAD 'patience', had ever
LIKED them or waited...no one before had had fun with
it...no one knew how-to-Live...made it fun...made it
'Real'...or knew or cared how to do so as IF..as 'if' we
might be Human Beings rather than 'people'...
I had a 'Mission District' route too...illegal, no
permits...I could have got killed like the other drivers
had...beaten, robbed...white people could not go there then
without seeming impudent...(or now most likely!) or not with
impunity, usually in
many areas...and certainly NOT if anyone thought you had
money on you...you just get snuffed...beaten and left for
dead..pissed on, literally even...shot.
I was 'Bambii' with a Baracuda's teeth as went all the way
down to my skinny larynx. I got bye, never got whacked or
robbed....had many MANY close calls...the guns in their
pants with the masking tape on the grips, that 'Aztec'
slit-smile frown of death, the five hundred years of hate
simmering in their blood...all of it...the little shifting
ape 'dances' they do...on and on...and, well,
maybe they did not 'like' me all that much, but by god they
behaved themselves. I was 17...18 maybe...slender and
androgynous and pale and weighed 135 at 5' 11". And I did
not carry a gun either on my route.
Just me...
Left the gun at home.
I held my own somehow, and I knew any day too I could get
killed or beaten...I knew that very well.
Anyway...their Latino versions of 'Down's Syndrome' and old
people, and deformed people and majorly stoned people and
dried throw-up on their shirt-fronts people teetering across
a weedy lawn...and on
and on as took FOREVER to get to the curb...by god got their
'nutty-buddy' or whatever the hell they wanted or did not
know what they wanted and got what I handed them...too...
On and on..it was never less than...Life, and often fun, and
manners and INTENTION...and sometimes fear, and whacky
adventure, and courage and
patience and will and WILL (and...with 10 cent, fifteen cent
and some few twenty-cent Ice Creams, by god I made twelve to
fourteen hundred dollars a month in 1971, and I'd have to
make ten times that now to have the 'standard of living' I
had then...sigh...eeeeeek! And I do not 'make' ten-times
what I made then...I make about the same it so happens...a
little more sometimes...Oh well...'sigh'...)
> 5) Do you always / sometimes / never accommodate clients
when asked for
> discount for "bulk buying"? Do you take all the scenarios
into account
> when pricing, deciding which clients are going to receive
"preferred
> customer status" and so on? In other words do you have a
formal discount
> policy in place and can you project the cost accurately
over the next year?
I allways accomidate everyone to some degree in some way.
Discounts may
be had for the asking if one wishes to buy many items.
Discounts may be given without they even knew it
sometimes...on and on...
'Preferred' status, or rather, certain priveleges, are
available to anyone even if we just met...no formal
structure for that. I do as I see fit to allow fun and ease,
openness and experiment and practical respects to keep and
enjoy their wings...
...it is Jazz...it has flexible seeking structure, it likes
Life better than
death, and it acts that way, too.There are no or few
ambiguities about it, or about 'what' it ( me, me in
business, me as me, me in Life, my Life) does.
> 6) When refunding items returned by clients are you able
to correctly
> itemise all the costs involved?
I have never refunded for anything...and almost never had a
'return'...very rarely...
If someone had erred in their judgement in their selection
of getting something from me as did not suit their use, they
may exchange it for something as will suit their use, or I
will make them something as will.
This has oddly, almost never happenned, and I ask all the
time in
talking with people who have my things...I allways let them
know that if they have something of mine, it better be
earning it's keep, or they should trade it in for something
as shall.
Had maybe three or four takers of the offer in the last
half a decade. With many hundred of things I made...
> Are you able to project these costs over
> the whole financial year? If so, do you have a mechanism
in place which
> triggers readjustment of pricing to accommodate these
costs?
I project nothing...I know nothing of a 'fiscal year'...it
is the year "ZERO" and it allways was.
A Calander is a Tool, a mental or objectified map...it is
not an Artisan.
It does nothing...it asks only to be used, not TO use me.
I fly by the seat of my pants...I know
which way is 'North'...I sometimes pay my rent on time, I am
generous with what I have, and with what I invent out of
wit.
Other than intelligent companions, I lack nothing, and, owe
no one.
> I have a lot of other questions, but don't want to
overload my brain
> tonight! This sort of subject usually has me lying awake
ruminating for
> hours, when I should be in Never Never Land. Oh, well...
>
> Sincerely
>
> Janet Kaiser
...well good day!
Good fun...thanks Janet!
Cheers!
Phil
lasvegas
>
************************************************************
**********
> TRUTH is too precious to tell every fool who asks for
it...
> ****** This post was sent to you today by Janet Kaiser
*******
> The Chapel of Art / Capel Celfyddyd
> 8 Marine Crescent, Criccieth LL52 0EA, Wales, UK
> Tel: ++44 (01766) 523570 URL: http://www.the-coa.org.uk
>
************************************************************
**********
>
>
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Judi Buchanan on mon 30 jun 03
adventure?
Janet, if my 30 years experience doing craft fairs is a good sample
there are a very few "rotten" customers. Once or twice a year I have a
situation that needs "adjustment". Only 3 where I thought I was being
scammed and rather than get into an argument I refunded or replaced. Not
worth the hassle. Potters are conditioned to loses all along the
production process and this is just one more risk.
I have only had two bad checks (one from a local tax agent who probably
thought my conscience was too bad to prosecute).
No one who wanted pottery but didn't have their check book has failed
to send me a check when I trusted them to take the pottery and pay
later.
Someone buying a lot of pottery usually gets a free item, especially if
they are debating about adding just one more piece. I say take it as a
gift.
Little kids and other craftsmen always get a discount.
My husband handles hagglers. He leans over close and whispers as if to
save them embarrassment "This isn't a flea market."
I've been told by shop and gallery owners that it is entirely different
in their situation. Do you suppose it is part of this dealing with the
"artist" syndrome?
Judi Buchanan
"1) Does everyone who has a "no questions asked" refund policy fracture
in
the cost of replacing goods which customers return and if so what
percentage of your annual turnover is it?
2) Do you know what your losses through wastage like theft and fraud
were
over the past year / 5 years / 10 years? Have you been able to cover
these
costs by rational cost counting and price adjustment or have you ignored
this specific item in your accounts?
3) Does everyone include a money-losing product or item to encourage
customers to buy products with higher profit margins? If so, how do you
accommodate the losses generated? By restricting the number of
individual
pieces "on offer" or by exponentially increasing profit margins on other
items/lines?
4) Do you offer any "buy two get one free" type deals? If so, are they
individually priced to accommodate the "free" item or have they already
become a loss-making line?
5) Do you always / sometimes / never accommodate clients when asked for
discount for "bulk buying"? Do you take all the scenarios into account
when pricing, deciding which clients are going to receive "preferred
customer status" and so on? In other words do you have a formal
discount
policy in place and can you project the cost accurately over the next
year?
6) When refunding items returned by clients are you able to correctly
itemise all the costs involved? Are you able to project these costs over
the whole financial year? If so, do you have a mechanism in place which
triggers readjustment of pricing to accommodate these costs? "
Judi Buchanan on tue 1 jul 03
adventure?
Oh yes, Janet, I've met that customer many times. Also the ones that
"know" artists are (A) eccentric (B) starving (C) desperate for money
and attention. I don't know what would give them that idea. Maybe
because we are standing in the middle of a damp park on a holiday
weekend hawking our wares? :>) One of my favorite "customer" quotes
"That's what I call makin' a killin' out of a pile of mud."
Of course, We don't survive on these customers. It is the ones with the
other unrealistic view, that anything handmade is marvelous and all
artists are God touched, that pay my bills. Bless them every one.
Judi Buchanan
-----Original Message-----
As a gallerist now, but especially when I was peddling my own wares, I
am/was often miffed by the perception on the part of many of the great
general public that art / craft was something which (A) was easy to
create
(B) required no special skills (C) did not take much time to "knock up"
and
(D) was not made of anything special so could not possibly cost very
much... Is this the "artist syndrome" you mean?
Sincerely
Janet Kaiser
pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on tue 1 jul 03
adventure?
Hi Janet,
I hope you know I like you plenty, and I just wandered into
a little ramble there into the general vicissitudes of so
called 'business' and 'law' 'government' and so on...(like
'wet', 'watery' and 'aqueous' I suppose...)
Oweing to how in their corruptions, they do a great deal to
interfere with the happier and more wholesome commerce and
aspirations of human affairs, and they cultivate cynicism
and dispair.
And I do empathise with the things you are up against, and I
admire very much your example of ethics, humor, careing,
creative endevour generally, and your moral as well as
practical support of Artists and Artisans.
I admire that you take time to write all of us with
interesting and useful apreciations and your support of all
of us, too.
I tip my hat to you all the time.
Best of good fortune!
Yours,
Phil
lasvegas
Janet Kaiser on tue 1 jul 03
adventure?
Ha! I don't know about other galleries, Judi, but we get hagglers all the
time! It is the "rich bitches" (male and female) who are worst, closely
followed by people who "know an artist/maker". I have yet to understand
what the latter has to do with anything, but apparently they think it is
some sort of entre=E9 into an elite world where if you scratch my back,
I'll scratch yours...
As a gallerist now, but especially when I was peddling my own wares, I
am/was often miffed by the perception on the part of many of the great
general public that art / craft was something which (A) was easy to create
(B) required no special skills (C) did not take much time to "knock up" and
(D) was not made of anything special so could not possibly cost very
much... Is this the "artist syndrome" you mean?
Sincerely
Janet Kaiser
*** IN REPLY TO THE FOLLOWING MAIL:
> My husband handles hagglers. He leans over close and whispers as if to
>save them embarrassment "This isn't a flea market."
>I've been told by shop and gallery owners that it is entirely different
>in their situation. Do you suppose it is part of this dealing with the
>"artist" syndrome?
> Judi Buchanan
*** THE MAIL FROM Judi Buchanan ENDS HERE ***
**********************************************************************
TRUTH is too precious to tell every fool who asks for it...
****** This post was sent to you today by Janet Kaiser *******
The Chapel of Art / Capel Celfyddyd
8 Marine Crescent, Criccieth LL52 0EA, Wales, UK
Tel: ++44 (01766) 523570 URL: http://www.the-coa.org.uk
**********************************************************************
pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on thu 3 jul 03
adventure? "BB" and...
Coralaries as came to mind...
The film, "Runaway Train"...and the character 'Manny'
who said...shouted...
"You do not KNOW what you CAN what you cannot DO!"
He was right...
In this context, in this perspective...all around...he was
right...
In the film, "The Grey Fox" and the character Bill Miner,
having got out of prison in 1902 for a Stage Coach robbery
he had been incarcerated for since 1867...
says...
"I'm no 'clam-digger'..." and later, "I'd prefer something
with a little more heft"...
...and he was right too...
In the film Breaker Morant...the character Mr. Morant , when
asked if he would like to go free, be allowed to 'escape'
for a crime he never comitted, so he could 'See the World',
and not be shot, said...
"I've seen it."
And then he let it, them, kill him...they shot him.
In the film, "The year of Living Dangerously", the character
Billy said...
"Smoke from the fire...dust on the mirror...to betray their
Souls, grow old, become ghosts..."
And he let it kill him too...
In the film, "The Night of the Iguanna" and the character
Maxine said...
"...I'll get you up that hill baby..."
And she did...
In the film, "One flew over the Cookoo's Nest" the chracter
'Chief' said...
'Juicy-Friut'
...and then lifted the marble Hydrotherapy - Station and
carrying it, threw it out the window, and left...lopeing to
the horizon...
In the film "Repentance", the woman and the girl go out in
the rain and mud to look at
the ends of the 'logs' arrived by Train from the 'North', to
search
for perhaps cryptic, faint, scratched messages from the men
in the
Prison Logging
Camps...whom they
would never see again...and found, none I think...
In the fim "Mcabe and Mrs. Miller", the character Mcabe
said, "You got a turd in your pocket or are you alone?"
And, they were not 'alone'....they killed him too...in the
snow...
In the film "Badlands" the girl in the woods playing with
makup thinks to herself...among other things, "...I can have
only have so many days to
live..."
In the film "Like Water for Chocolate", the woman
said..."...We only have so many 'Matches'..."
In the film 'Jurassic Park' the whats-his-name ( the Jeff
Goldblum) character said, when it turned out some of the
'dinosaurs' HAD managed to do things in spite of the
built-in genetic fail-safes, said...
"Life finds a way..."
( or something as that...)
He was right...
It does, and will...
Life wants to Live...
And will do so, in spite of
'business'...'government'...'experts'...or the perimeters
and protocols or politics of 'zoos'...
Janet Kaiser on thu 3 jul 03
adventure?
Ha! "Annoyance Tax" now that is what I call a Good Idea, Gayle! :-)
Yes, we need some ECUSAC (East Coast USA Coaching) in NYSSR or PASSR (New
York or Philadelphia-Style Snappy Responses) 'cos I for one just cannot
think quickly enough on my feet. I spend -- No! WASTE hours thinking of
what I should or could have said...
Of course the tone is all important... If someone is demanding and
condescending they have no chance. But usually I say something along the
lines that certainly we would consider giving a **discretionary**
discount... Yes, Sir/Madam... To selected patrons on sales amounting to
=A31000 or more. That usual has them "satisfied" for some strange reason! I
even heard one guy mention this "policy" to someone else the other day...
Seemed very impressed too! No one needs to know that that sort of sale only
happens once in a blue moon... Half a dozen times max. here since 1995.
Of course some just go into haggling mode in any personal one-to-one
situation, like they were used to doing their daily shopping at a bazaar.
Others are on holiday, so think it all part of the fun of the fair and they
are using skills learned from holidays in countries where haggling is part
of their culture and where it would be considered outright silly not to. I
also sometimes wonder if we are becoming so used to impersonal shopping in
supermarkets, that the novelty of speaking and dealing with a real person
is so strange, that people flip into a different mode of thinking? Who is
going to ask the person at the cash desk for discount at the check-out
counter? And anyway, their in-store discount card is going to award "money
back" anyway... It is all leading consumers to feel they are getting the
best deal and the stores are oh, so generous... Bah! Humbug!
Of course as a "lone trader" you get the individuals who always ask (and
often receive) a discount wherever they go and whatever they are planning
to purchase. On the oft quoted you-cannot-get-what-you-don't-ask-for
principle. I was taking to a bookseller the other day and he said 70 to 80%
request discount, with around 10% refusing to buy when refused. He reckons
it is thanks to the supermarkets selling books as a loss-making line. They
are cynically pursuing an underpricing, undercutting policy so they put the
little book shops out of business... When they are all closed, guess what
will happen to the price of books in superstores and on-line?
We have already seen it happen with florists and all the wonderful little
family-run businesses that were the heart of all British towns... Where it
was possible to buy absolutely anything you could possibly need with
personal service & attention there are now rows of sandwich bars, sleazy
night-clubs, greetings card, knick-knack and charity shops wedged between
all the empty boarded-up premisses. Whole areas are now reliant on people
getting in the car and driving miles to shop in huge impersonal stores...
It is all very sad, especially for those without a car.
I do believe that Judi had a point about the standing in a damp field
selling work... Roadside sales, farmer's and craft markets have led
everyone to believe that they are going to get cheaper ware direct from the
producer. If they already have a "value" in their heads (like the 99 cent
mug from Wallmart) they expect to get a similar item for even less at any
sort of market situation. Like you know the price of corn (maize) in the
shops, so straight off the farmer they should be half that price... But
wait a minute, what did a corn of maize cost to plant? The soil is free,
watered by free rain, the farmer only had to cut it down and cart it to
market, etc. etc. He should be selling corn on the cob for $1 per sack full
as far as the market-goer is concerned... Now apply that logic to anything
made of CLAY... Now that has got to be literally DIRT CHEAP! Especially as
it didn't take much making, etc, etc, blah, blah...
Everyone is happily cutting out the middleman and perceive they are doing
well as a win-win situation. It is self-deception to some extent due to the
costs of time, stall fees, lost production, travel, etc. on the part of the
maker-producer-seller, who has not done very much to promote the exclusive
or unique nature of their work or their art/craft, by putting it in what is
perceived by everyone to be the lowest commercial situation possible.
Markets are for buying cheap stuff, flashy, uptown shops for expensive,
quality...
But enough! I would say that, wouldn't I? And it still does not solve
having the snappy reply to suit every situation...
Sincerely
Janet Kaiser
*** IN REPLY TO THE FOLLOWING MAIL:
>I probably wouldn't do this were I a gallery owner
> but
>I did stop a haggler dead in his tracks.
>When he offered less than my price I told him
>I would give him give a special price ........
>I then added 50% to the price.
>I think of it as an annoyance tax!
>My prices are already more than reasonable...
>what an insult to try to haggle.
>
>Some of you are just too nice... you need some
>East Coast USA snappy retorts!
>
*** THE MAIL FROM claybair ENDS HERE ***
**********************************************************************
TRUTH is too precious to tell every fool who asks for it...
****** This post was sent to you today by Janet Kaiser *******
The Chapel of Art / Capel Celfyddyd
8 Marine Crescent, Criccieth LL52 0EA, Wales, UK
Tel: ++44 (01766) 523570 URL: http://www.the-coa.org.uk
**********************************************************************
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