The Costco initiative
We like Costco. It's fun to go there and head for the Promised Land of Consumerism like so many Sooners. Our wagons are uncovered, but when the doors open at Costco, the rush is on to get as many products as we can, like a 500-pack of paper plates, or a 20-pack of double-A batteries, some $14 dress shirts and a tub of red licorice. And a big screen TV. And a huge apple pie. And an above-ground pool. And that's just one basket.
We don't like the liquor initiative Costco is attempting to get us to support. On the surface, there is something fundamentally unseemly about the $22,000,000 they have spent on advertising in support of a law that would allow them to sell hard liquor in their big box stores. And take that practice away from state liquor stores. Does it bother you that a company has the kind of money Costco has thrown at this change in the law to help people get drunk less expensively, rather than some more socially beneficial use of the money?
The fact that 37 other states already allow private companies to sell liquor does not justify the move by Costco, one of the nation's biggest retailers, and the author of the initiative, to make this move.
Writing in Washington Wine Report, author Sean Sullivan said "The key component of Initiative 1183 from a wine industry viewpoint is that it removes uniform wholesale pricing and allows volume discounting. This creates an incentive for retailers to buy larger volumes of wine at a cheaper cost. I believe that this change may make it more difficult for Washington wineries to compete.
Washington has a very limited number of ‘large’ wineries. 27 of our 740+ wineries account for 90% of the total wine production in the state. Yes, these 27 wineries will be able to slug it out in a volume discount market with wines from California and other areas.
However, the vast majority of Washington wineries are small, family wineries producing less than 3,000 cases annually. These wineries simply do not make enough volume to make a profit by selling wine in large quantities at a reduced margin, unless their business model and marketing approaches completely change.
For many of these wineries, uniform wholesale pricing is what allows them to survive. Take this away and I believe it may be more difficult for many of these wineries to sell their wine. I also believe that it puts small distributors at a disadvantage, as they are the people selling these wines. Many of them will have a tough time in what will increasingly be a large distributor industry focusing on low margins and high volume. That does not help our industry. That does not help me as a consumer looking to buy Washington wine.
In otherwords, it allows Costco to squeeze out the little guy. You should care about this. Small business makes up 85 percent of all business. We need small business to create competitive texture in our communities.
Vote no on I-1183.
Why we like small banks
The Occupy Wall Street movement resonates strongly with us. Many people are clearly disturbed by the callous, bloodless practices of the nations big banks. And they are mad as hell and unwilling to take it anymore. The announcement by Bank of America that they planned to charge customers $5 a month to use their debit cards was the catalyst that got the Occupy movement to galvanize into action. Still, the beat goes on.
When we went to a Wells-Fargo branch bank one day last week to cash a $143 check drawn on their bank, a nebbish in the teller cage asked us for ID, to sign our name, address and phone number and put our right thumb print on the check. We didn't have an account at the bank and learned that is their policy. Okay. We complied. Then the nebbish said "There is a $7.50 charge to cash a check if you don't have an account with us." Several bad words escaped before I demanded my ID (two pieces, because apparently the photo on the driver's license isn't proof enough)and my check.
This incident is a prime example of why people do not trust or like Big Banks. I feel a bit sorry for people who are employed there. They are largely automatons following orders crafted by a team of tassel-toed attorneys breathing the rarefied air of the upper floors of large office buildings in the city, inspecting their manicure during board meetings and sniffing disdainfully at the little people when they pass them on the sidewalk on the way to the athletic club for lunch.
My own smaller bank cashed the Wells-Fargo check the next day without the thumb print requirement and even gave me a cookie. Banks like Wells-Fargo seem to operate on a policy of "Give us your money and we will make it as miserable and demeaning an experience as we can think of."
Move your money to a small bank. When they get big, move to another small bank. The operant principal is the same in many business; when they are small and growing they are anxious to please and put their best foot forward. When they hit their stride, their worst foot is put forward.
One good idea we saw on the internet the other day was to take the junk mail you get from the big banks and return it to them. It cost them about .25 cents for each returned piece of mail. If you stuff the envelope with something heavier than the offer it came with, it will cost them even more. Imagine tens of thousands of unsolicited junk mail being returned empty to the plutocrats in the ivory towers of high finance.
Locally, Viking Bank offers all the services of the BIG BANKS but does so without the sneering service and robotic tellers. Consider moving your money there.
