I understand that, but if, for example, I can't listen to the volume of an alarm that an alarm clock makes, I don't want to buy it, except possibly if I get a guarantee that I can return it if it's not loud enough, but I would prefer to know how loud the alarm is before purchase. A lot of "Loudest alarm" alarm clocks have unbelievably quiet alarms.
On Sat, 23 Aug 2008 21:42:51 -0400, "Edwin Pawlowski" wrote Re Re: "We kept Wal-Mart out of our town!":
Great articles. Thanks.
Answer: letters to the editor from people I know that I saw in the Moscow WM. You seem to be on a witch hunt or something.
Harry K
This is why stores used to have demonstrator models on display- actual plugged-in working units, not empty shells zip-tied to the gondolas.
As to the alarm clocks- don't most have the db ratings listed on the box?
-- aem sends...
Do any of them have such ratings? Can you name a single example?
No idea what the (meaningless on made-in-China generic junk) brand name was, but the one in my bedroom now said 85 db on the box, which is why I picked it over the others. (no, I didn't save the box- this was several years ago.) I'm half-deaf in one ear, and needed one I could hear through the pillow if I happened to be sleeping on my good ear. I have found that other than old-style windup alarms, you have to get a 110v line-powered one. None of the battery-powered ones does more than chirp, in my experience.
(Goes and looks) Westclox m/n 124721. But I have seen the same basic clock under other brand names. Their website appears to be dead, so I guess they are now just another zombie brand name used by one of the import-export companies.
-- aem sends...
In the first example I gave (one of the DTV converters), they did have a display model out. However, it was tied down so as to completely block view of one of the most important parts (the connectors). Without being able to determine if it had a baseband output, it was unsuitable (I DO NOT want the signal degraded by the unnecessary use of RF modulator and tuner).
The ones I've looked at do not. Anyway, it would be meaningless because of lack of measurement standards (is it measured 5 feet away or 5 inches, etc...).
And what is the industry-wide measurement standard which would make this information useful?
You aren't aware that sound pressure levels can be measured? Never heard of the decibel unit? However, I know of no alarm clock maker that bothers to do so.
Not specifically to alarm clocks, but I have too much experience with dB figures for consumer electronics:
- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)
There's still a lot of missing standards. What standards are used to calibrate the meter? Where do you put the sound-level meter? Under the pillow? 5 inches in front of the clock? What is the "standard test room" like? How quiet is it? How many square feet of curtains? All these and more affect sound level readings. Unless measurements are made under agreed-upon controlled conditions, they're of limited (if any) use.
This lack of standards reminds me of the useless "peak music power" ratings on audio equipment.
BTW, you might know that bels (a decibel is .1 of a bel) are NOT a unit of sound. They're just a way of representing ratios on a logarithmic scale. 0db is an arbitrary point.
And what is the difference between the procedure in WM and any other store? Well, there is one. WM will take it back no questions asked.
Harry K
Did the clerk laugh?
My mother used to joke with the clerks from the 1930's to the 1970's and she finally gave up, because they never got it. They always gave her a serious, blank look.
I think you're being hard on those people. They can be truly opposed to their building a WM and give up or change their mind later.
Even wanting none in one's own town but shopping at one in another town is reasonable. I'm sure they didn't lobby to get one built in Moscow, but it's already there. I don't want a 7-11 two hundred yards from me, where I can see it, but I'll go to one two blocks away.
You really can't get a better illustration of NIMBY than that.
I'm also pretty accomplished at admitting I don't know.
I am afraid that if I DIDN'T know the answer, but made one up and delivered it to the customer, I would get it wrong or someone would overhear my b.s. and call me on it. The worst would be that my wrong information resulted in poor service to the customer.
I try to NOT look stupid, even when I don't have a clue. I'm pretty good at it.
Agreed. For remedies that requires such detail, opening the box and, often with cameras, reading of the Owner's Manual is required.
I bought my first dSLR camera and THEN learned about the concept of "crop factor" with image sensors smaller than the size of a full frame of 35mm film - the benchmark by which virtually all lens's focal length is determined. It was a BIG deal, wasn't on the outside (or readily available INSIDE) of the box, but I still have (and love) the camera.
It's too bad that most packaging is designed to minimize waste and thwart a shoplifter.
When I was buying spray on top coat sealer for metal I was only allowed to buy one can at a time. I needed three, so I had to leave the store, put the can in the car, come back in, buy the second, lather, rinse, repeat. As if buying only one at a time will stop morons from huffing. Ridiculous.
Wow, you need to come over here and teach seminars to retail people on how to say, "Sorry, I don't have that information," or maybe to the management on why it's better to admit you don't know something rather than look ignorant. There is a horrible dearth of that around here, even when I ask the waffling retail people to their face, "are you trying to say you don't have the answer to that question?" It's like there is some unwritten law in retail around here of "Death before admitting you don't know something."
The other thing that REALLY irks me is if you ask if they carry something and they say, "Did you see it on the shelf?" If I did, I wouldn't be asking. (this, of course, is ludicrously counterbalanced with the question by the cashier, "Did you find everything you were looking for?" One of these days I am going to be able to tell the cashier that I couldn't find something because the person on the floor refused to help, and then I bet heads will roll.) My eyes are not always as good as they used to be, and sometimes a second pair or eyes to find something is helpful, like the nice pharmacist that found the OTC med for me when I told him that I thought it should be located around such-and-such category but I didn't see it.
-snip-
But the feds do. You must be 21 to buy pistol ammo.
The store can choose to believe you or not if you say you are going to shoot it in a rifle.
Jim
Do you actually have a consistent opinion about anything? Unless your mission is to be the jerry springer of Usenet you just make yourself look silly.
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