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Layaway, other changes irk Wal-Mart loyalists

Some shoppers feel betrayed by decision to end layaway, remove fabric

 

 Aug 31, 2007

 

Even though most parents are still focused on shopping for their kids’ back-to-school items, Carrie Munns is already thinking about Christmas.

That in itself is not unusual. What is unusual is that, instead of pondering what toys she should buy at her local Wal-Mart, the 43-year-old mother of two is wondering how she’s going to play Santa Claus this year without the layaway option she had relied on.

“It’ll be less, let me put it that way,” she said. “They won’t get as much.”

Long after most mainstream department stores eliminated layaway plans, Wal-Mart continued to offer the old-fashioned service, which appeals mainly to consumers who either don’t have credit cards or already are carrying high credit card debt. But that ended last year when Wal-Mart eliminated the layaway program, leaving many customers seething about the change — and fretting about what to do this holiday season.

The move is especially jarring to some families because it has come amid other changes Wal-Mart has made, including cutting back on fabric departments and stocking more trendy clothes, as the discounting titan tries to appeal to a broader swath of shoppers, including more upscale consumers. Those changes, some longtime shoppers say, has made them feel like the store is less interested in catering to its traditional and loyal market of family shoppers on tight budgets.

“I always believed that they’re always trying to give us the lowest prices and they’re not for the rich man, you know?” said Jennifer Reynolds, a 28-year-old mother of four who used to depend on layaway for her children’s school uniforms and holiday gifts. “I just can’t believe that they would get rid of layaway and say, ‘Here, well, here’s a credit card.’ ”

Reynolds was, in fact, so angered by the decision that she started an online petition aimed at restoring the service, and sent two e-mails to Wal-Mart. She said the company never responded, although she continues to hear from other Wal-Mart shoppers disappointed by the change.

Layaway programs allow people to make a down payment on an item and then pay off the rest over a set period of time before taking it home. The system is still offered by rival Kmart, although most large retailers have long since gone exclusively to more modern payment forms including credit and debit cards, citing the cost and hassle of managing layaway programs.

Linda Brown Blakley, a spokeswoman for Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, said the company decided to stop offering layaway because fewer people were using it and it was costing the company more.

Blakley also said more people now have access to other financing options, such as credit cards, than when layaway first started. For customers without credit cards, she said the company simply tries to offer the best value.

Patricia Edwards, an analyst with investment firm Wentworth, Hauser and Violich who owns shares in Wal-Mart, remembers visiting a Wal-Mart on the day after Thanksgiving a couple years ago and being surprised to see that the longest line in the store was for the layaway department.

From a financial perspective, she said, allowing shoppers to put items on layaway instead of buying them outright is a big risk because some people will never pay them off. That leaves Wal-Mart stuck with merchandise it could have sold during peak demand times but instead has to offer at clearance prices.

On the other hand, Edwards noted, the decision to end layaway was a blow to many loyal Wal-Mart customers.

“It hasn’t helped reputationally, and it hasn’t helped especially with their core (low-income) customers,” she said.

Reynolds, who lives on the military base in Fort Hood, Texas, said she still shops at Wal-Mart about once a week, but she’s stopped doing her grocery shopping there and also has noticed that some other items are now cheaper elsewhere.

Wal-Mart has recently acknowledged that many of its most loyal customers are being pressured by high gas prices and other costs, and it has lowered prices on some items.

Reynolds bought some school uniforms at Wal-Mart this year, although she said she also scoured garage sales and secondhand stores. For the coming holidays, she’s thinking of putting items on layaway at her local Kmart instead of shopping at Wal-Mart.

Munns doesn’t have that option, because there isn’t a Kmart in her community of Horn Lake, Miss., and the other big department and toy stores there don’t offer layaway, either. She said she and her husband have been trying to put money away in a savings account for the holidays, but she worries it won’t be enough for the pricier items her 6-year-old and 13-year-old will want for Christmas.

Munns goes to Wal-Mart for her groceries, and she likes the convenience of also being able to pick up other items at the Supercenter. But she said she’s been disappointed by changes she’s seen at the store over the past few years, including poor customer service and boxes in the aisles.

She also has cut back on buying clothes at Wal-Mart, because the store has started stocking trendier clothes that don’t appeal to her.

‘I’m 43 years old. I can’t wear pants that (hang) off your hips and shirts that show your belly button,” she said.

Wal-Mart has conceded that it has had problems with its push toward trendier items, and it has blamed apparel difficulties for contributing to weakness in some store sales.

As part of its push to broaden its appeal, Wal-Mart also recently finished remodeling many of its stores. While shoppers have welcomed the cleaner stores and better signage, some remodels and new store openings have angered longtime customers because they included replacing fabric departments with areas featuring party supplies.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Tara Raddohl said that she didn’t know exactly how many stores no longer have fabric departments and that the company is still evaluating the project. But in general, she said, fabric has been a declining business for the company, and officials have been happy with sales in stores where it has replaced those items with party supplies.

Edwards, the analyst, said adding party supplies was probably a smart decision in the more urban areas where sewing has become less common. But in rural communities, where sewing is more popular and Wal-Mart may have been the only place to buy fabric, such a change doesn’t necessarily make as much sense.

Jennings, who is 70, has started asking her daughter in California to buy fabrics she uses to make clothes for her grandchildren, doll’s outfits and other items. With the added cost of shipping, she said her projects have become more expensive.

She scoffs at the idea of ordering fabric over the Internet instead.

“Most of these older women don’t even have computers,” she said. “I have a computer, but I probably wouldn’t it order online, either. I’d want to look at it.”

In Joan Jennings’ retirement community of Bullhead City, Ariz., Wal-Mart was the only store where the many older women could buy quilting, sewing and craft supplies. Now, she said, the only options are to drive nearly two hours to Las Vegas — a trek that’s difficult for many retirees — or to ask someone in another part of the country to send supplies by mail.

Jennings, who is 70, has started asking her daughter in California to buy fabrics she uses to make clothes for her grandchildren, doll’s outfits and other items. With the added cost of shipping, she said her projects have become more expensive.

She scoffs at the idea of ordering fabric over the Internet instead.

“Most of these older women don’t even have computers,” she said. “I have a computer, but I probably wouldn’t it order online, either. I’d want to look at it.”

 

 

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BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court has awarded 3,000 euros ($4,100) in damages to a man who had to have the top of his skull replaced with plastic because of a faulty hospital fridge.

Doctors removed the top of the man's head and put it in cold storage while they operated on his brain, the court in the western city of Koblenz said Tuesday.

Because the refrigerator was defective, the section of skull was not kept cool enough and could not be reattached. Doctors replaced the bone with a plastic prosthesis.

The man sought compensation of at least 20,000 euros on the grounds that the prosthesis caused him headaches, affected his balance and made him unduly sensitivity to the weather.

Following consultations with experts, the court found that the operation had caused the man's discomfort, not the loss of the top of his skull.

Compensation of 3,000 euros was "appropriate and sufficient," it said.

"The experts consulted by the court concluded the new skull roof was better than the original," a court spokesman said. 

 

 

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I found this disturbing story about yet another teacher/student relationship.

 

By GEORGE CHIDI
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/23/07

A former Gwinnett County teacher has given birth and gone to jail since police charged her with having sex with a student who was in her class.

Angela Christine Coffey, a 34-year-old Lilburn woman, gave birth in April to a girl fathered by a 17-year-old student at Meadowcreek High School in Norcross, where Coffey coached cheerleading and taught English as a Second Language. The former student, now 18, declined to cooperate with prosecutors and has visited Coffey in jail since she pleaded guilty July 27 to sexual assault on a person in custody, jail records show.

Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office

Angela Christine Coffey

The couple's daughter, now 4 months old, is in the care of Coffey's relatives.

"Their daughter is healthy and happy," said Coffey's attorney, Ash Joshi. "That's what driving her to get through this."

Coffey taught at Meadowcreek from August 2004 to October 2006. Police say she and a student had a consensual relationship for several months that included sexual contact at a house in a subdivision near Lawrenceville.

She resigned after her arrest and has voluntarily relinquished her state certification to teach.

The age of consent is 16 in Georgia, but state law prohibits sexual contact by a "person [who] has supervisory or disciplinary authority over another person," such as a prison guard or a school teacher.

Coffey didn't come into Joshi's office wondering whether what she did was wrong, the attorney said. She knew it wrong, he said, but he believes they loved each other.

"It was only a crime because of the status of the victim — student-teacher," he said.

 

 

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Every once in a while I need to have one, how about you?

 

CHICAGO (AP) -- Normally, a 40-year-old sandwich would be something to be avoided. Unless you're one of millions who flock to McDonald's each year to chow down on a Big Mac. The triple-decker burger, which helped breed America's super-size culture and restaurants' ever-expanding jumbo meals, is turning 40. For some fast-food junkies, that's cause for celebration.

"The flavors that come together - it's like heaven in your mouth," said April Kohlhaas, a 31-year-old Chicago resident. "It's just tradition, like American comfort food."

The Big Mac was first introduced in 1967 by Jim Delligatti, a McDonald's franchise owner in Uniontown, Pa. A year later, it became a staple of McDonald's menus nationwide.

To celebrate the burger's anniversary, Delligatti, 89, and his family opened a Big Mac Museum Restaurant this week in North Huntingdon, Pa., full of memorabilia, celebratory exhibits and "the world's largest Big Mac statue."

Indeed, the sandwich has become a veritable pop culture phenomenon, spawning everything from an impossible-to-forget jingle ("Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun," anyone?) to a currency-evaluation index created by The Economist.

Along the way, more people in more 100 countries have given in to Big Mac attacks, according to Oak Brook-based McDonald's Corp.

"The Big Mac is certainly one of our most popular sandwiches," said spokeswoman Danya Proud. "There is only one Big Mac and there will only ever be one Big Mac."

McDonald's estimates 550 million Big Macs are sold each year in the U.S. alone. Do the math and that's about 17 per second. Weighing in at nearly a half-pound, with 540 calories and 29 grams of fat each, that's enough to make nutritionists cringe.

"When it was eaten once in a while there wasn't anything wrong with it," said Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition and food studies at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. "It was just fast food, something fun once in a while. But then it became everyday fare."

Andrea Hawkins had her first Big Mac in high school and likes the treat so much she started a "Big Mac-aholics" group on the social networking Web site Facebook.

She has put her Big Mac attacks on hiatus while she gets ready for her wedding next month. But that's not stopping her friends from building a cake-like tower of McDonald's hamburgers for her upcoming bachelorette party. At the top, of course - a Big Mac.

"(The) first treat on the way to the honeymoon will be a Big Mac," jokes the 25-year-old from Dayton, Ohio, who prefers hers without cheese.

Love them or hate them, the Big Mac has grown from its humble beginnings to become a cultural unifier, said pop culture expert and author Rachel Weingarten.

"You can live in Beijing or Brooklyn and you can enjoy as your favorite snack a Big Mac attack," she said. "Maybe you didn't grow up watching the same cartoons, maybe you didn't grow up speaking the same language, maybe you grew up next door to each other and never said hello, but you suddenly have a point of reference - this warm, yummy, bad-for-you, sometimes-naughty thing." 

 

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This is a very sad story that I had to share with you. Marine Mom, have you heard about this? 

 

By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press Writer

Fri Aug 24, 12:33 PM ET

A Marine drill instructor has been charged with 225 criminal counts connected to abusing recruits, a Marines spokesman said Thursday.

In one incident, Sgt. Jerrod M. Glass allegedly ordered a recruit to jump head-first into a trash can and then pushed him further into the container, according to court documents cited in The San Diego Union-Tribune. He is also accused of striking recruits with a tent pole and a heavy flashlight.

Two other drill instructors, Sgt. Robert C. Hankins and Sgt. Brian M. Wendel, face special courts-martial in the case, the Marines said. Arraignment dates have not been scheduled for either Marine.

A fourth drill instructor, whose name was not released, was disciplined and reassigned to administrative duties.

Glass postponed making a plea during a court appearance at San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot, where he worked, said spokesman Austin Mansfield. The charges include 91 counts of assault, 90 of failure to obey lawful orders and 27 of cruelty and maltreatment.

The charges cover about 110 alleged incidents between Dec. 23, 2006 and Feb. 10, the Marines said in press release. No member of his platoon was seriously injured.

Glass, who had worked as a drill sergeant for less than a year when the alleged mistreatment occurred, was relieved of duty as a drill instructor in February. He is scheduled to go to court-martial Nov. 8.

In court Wednesday, Glass did not speak except to answer basic questions from the judge, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks. Defense lawyer Capt. Patrick J. Callahan asked that all counts be read aloud.

Callahan did not immediately respond to a phone message for comment Thursday.

About 17,000 recruits graduate each year from the San Diego depot. Newly enlisted Marines train there and at Parris Island, S.C.

Last year, four Marines at the San Diego depot were charged in the drowning of a fellow drill instructor during a water survival training course. Two were acquitted of wrongdoing in the case. Charges were dropped against a third Marine and a fourth received nonjudicial discipline.

Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps prosecutor and judge who teaches law of war at Georgetown University Law Center, estimates that on average about six drill instructors, or DIs, are charged nationwide each year with abusing recruits.

"These kids are helpless before DI's," Solis said. "The DI is God and they have no immediate recourse."

 

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This idiot deserves to go to prison for a long, long time but if it's like the "celebrities" lately, he will just pay a fine, serve the weekend in county jail and be back in football in no time. I really hope that I am wrong and the rumors that I heard that he's being left on the roster long enough to get back the huge signing bonus he received.

 

 

 

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I am slowly back and found this story from one of my favorite business people that I wanted to share.

 

5 things that are always on sale

By Liz Pulliam Weston 

 

Most mattresses are relatively simple boxes made of springs, foam and fabric. That should make them commodities -- in other words, basically interchangeable -- and thus ideal for comparison shopping.

• Talk back: What items do you never buy at full price?