Sears, I'll miss the tools

[Stormin Mormon]

The Salvation Army though a Christian denomination (not a cult) does appear to some as one due, to the military titles and military structure it holds to. This is culturally taboo recently considering militia groups etc, but essentially it has one leader like the Catholic Church, Anglican church etc. It also has a council that elects that leader like the Council of Cardinals in the Catholic Church, Anglican Church etc. So it does appear to be a cult due to the culture wars of late. During the 1800's when it was founded it caused the numbers of adherents and soldiers of the Salvation Army to explode due to its ease to understand, it clear lines of authority, its global evangelical mission and especially resonated within the culture of the UK.

Read more:

[Stormin Mormon]

Some weeks ago, my church called for volunteers, to help clean up flood damage in a town in my state. I was one of the men who went. While I was working, a van came down the road, offering folks water, and pulled pork sandwiches. I don't remember which church was named on the side, one of the Baptists, if I remember. I had lunch with me, and plenty of water to drink, so I declined. the five men with me also politely declined.

Not long after that, the Salvation Army van came along. The folks next door asked for seven bottles of water, in a bag. Which they were cheerfully given. I asked how much the SA was charging, and told zero. Just here to support the workers. I did look at some web pages about cult characteristics, and that doesn't sound very cultish.

I did find a couple web pages that insist the SA is a cult, but didn't offer much evidence. One example of someone who was disciplined for marrying a non SA person, but that doesn't prove it for me. Might have been other reasons there, or it may be made up example.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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Indeed we do, and I avoid doing business with places that allow cults to operate on their property and harass their customers. BTW, for anyone who thinks the SA is not a cult, do a bit of research and report back.

[Robert Green]

When they switched over from analog to digital CCTV for in-store monitoring I got some great deals on Panasonic high-speed PTZ cams and 16CH multiplexers for $30 to $50 each at auction.

As I am sure you know, they have virtually all critical area under the watchful eyes of high-res cameras with pretty impressive zoom ranges. And they actually have people monitoring the cameras, unlike other outfits. That' OK with me. The more shoplifters they catch, the less they losses that the customer invariably ends up paying.

What impressed me most is how well the trash bins and the loading docks are covered. Shoplifting hurts, but employee theft can soon reach very high dollars levels. A typical inside job consist of an employee who's about to quit tries pushing a pallet of DVR's or other expensive stuff into the trash to collect later that night (on his way out of town). Nine times out of ten they'll be waiting for them because all that stuff is RFID tagged and silently alerts security when a tagged item goes out in the trash. From what I was told, they like making an example of those kinds of thieves to the other employees, some of whom were probably hatching their own schemes. I read somewhere that this year, gangs of shoplifters from other countries descended on US shopping malls to execute highly organized shoplifting and "fake return" scams.

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

Didn't those weenies self-castrate? Sometimes cults are good - they allow Darwinism to operate at group rates.

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

Ever see the movie "Miami Blues?" There's a great scene about dealing with the HK's in airports.

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

A little ditty I learned a long, long time ago:

Salvation Army Band, Salvation Army Band, Put a nickel in the drum, Save another drunken bum!

-- Bobby G.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I don't care if they are considered a cult or not. They do more charitable work and help more people with less overhead than any other charity. 93% of each dollar goes to charity instead of the huge overhead and big salaries that others have.

[HeyBub]

I had occasion to observe both the Red Cross and the Salvation Army in action during a hurricane. The Red Cross bought the combined output of 11 bread bakeries and five dairies in Houston and persuaded the local Coca-Cola bottler to bottle hundreds of thousands of coke bottles with water (this was before designer water). They opened countless shelters - with cots and blankets and marshalled hundreds of Red Cross trucks for the area. In sum, the Red Cross dumped tens of millions of dollars into the recovery effort.

The Salvation Army, run almost exclusively by volunteers, had mobile wagons of coffee and donuts for the volunteer workers and distributed an amazing amount of clothing to the displaced.

The SA probably spent $50,000 on their efforts, probably because that's all they had.

In my judgement, the SA got a much bigger bang for their buck and the Red Cross helped more people.

[Bob_Villa]

Also Ben Franklin. E.J. Korvettes (Eight Jewish Korean Vets...this is NOT a tasteless joke!)

[joevan]

Seems logical but I think it be culled?

[Jim Elbrecht]

My first credit card [1970] was Bradleys. Bought a $59 12" B&W TV and stretched the payments over a year to establish credit.

Then there was the Two Guys. . . . I guess you could build a whole website on the ones that came and went in the 60's--

When you look at how many have come and gone since Kmart began [essentially1912 or so as Kresge's], they are doing pretty well.

Jim

[Stormin Mormon]

That's rather non cult description. No rich and revered leader in splendor, while the peons starve. Come to think of it. Would North Korea be considered a cult? Or Japan during the big war?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

I don't care if they are considered a cult or not. They do more charitable work and help more people with less overhead than any other charity. 93% of each dollar goes to charity instead of the huge overhead and big salaries that others have.

[Stormin Mormon]

Thanks for the field report. I like the bottles of water concept.

[Caesar Romano]

On Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:32:57 -0500, Frank wrote Re Re: Sears, I'll miss the tools:

Good book about the rise and fall of Sears

[Jim Yanik]

"J. Clarke" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

amazing that you didn't tear the threads out of the pan instead of breaking a socket. SOMEbody shoulda been using a torque wrench on that plug. Probably needed a new crush washer too,so it would not need to be tightened so tight to prevent leaking.

[Bob_Villa]

Kmart/Sears is on the edge...as they have been many times!

[dpb]

On 12/29/2011 6:12 AM, HeyBub wrote: ...

I've been involved in recovery efforts in quite a number of situations (altho most out here are tornado or other very severe t-storm-type events).

The various aid groups are coordinated at a high level and have different missions within the overall recover scheme. The Red Cross is, as said, dominant in widespread temporary housing and feeding and assisting triage; those efforts are capital-intensive. SA is secondary level with some overlap but as noted much of their direct on site aid is actually support for the other workers.

I'm specifically associated w/ the United Methodists; we are the "long-term last resort" organization that stays around for months or even a year for those who, for various reasons, don't qualify for FEMA, aren't insured, have other problems such as disabilities that prevent working much or any to do cleanup/repair themselves, etc., etc., etc., ... There's a lot going on behind the scenes in these events; the larger the disaster, the more actual organization required to keep the volunteers and organizations from simply hindering more than helping from stumbling all over each other. Those efforts do take more than simple volunteers alone can manage on the spot and the infrastructure to support the relief is, like anything else, a real cost. Just to remind folks there's a lot involved beyond the most obvious that everybody sees.

--

[The Daring Dufas]

I guy I work with is a big Bama football fan and on a service call in one of the Walmart stores, tried on a Bama ball cap and forgot he had it on. He got a call from our corporate contract provider informing him to return to the store to pay for his cap. ^_^

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

I was thinking of Hillbilly English. ^_^

TDD

[notbob]

The difference between quality and crap:

I had to remove the head of a Puch twingle 2 stroke. It had square head bolts. I had no sockets. I used a SnapOn 10mm open end wrench slipped endwise down between the fins and on the bolt sq bolt head I turned it with a crescent wrench on the SnapOn wrench's shaft. Three bolts broke clean. The fourth finally broke free, but not before I twisted the shaft of the SnapOn wrench 1/4 turn from the head. When done, I put it back together and exerted enough force to twist the SnapOn shaft back straight with the head. I told the owner of the SnapOn wrenches, which I had borrowed, what happened and if he could tell me which wrench I twisted, I would replace it. He couldn't.

I had to remove an ignition nut from a Aermacchi 350 (H-D) single. I used a 10mm CRAFTSMAN open end wrench. Though used in the proper manner, the top finger snapped clean off. I was 30 miles from the nearest Sears.

These were both circa '70s wrenches. I think the SnapOn was made by Bonney, then. Can't say about the Craftsman, but it was the last Craftsman tool I ever purchased.

I still have 3" JH Williams adjustable wrench, the kind bikers hang on their key chains. I wore it thusly for 30 yrs and used it hundreds of times, often to the near breaking point. As bruised, battered, and mangled as it now is, it will still close tightly on, and hold, a single layer of rolling paper.

That's quality, guys!

nb