My apologies, I remember the TR syndrome thread.


"Doug Kanter" wrote in message ...
I always try to do that. It's getting harder, though, unless one wants to
drive all over the county. Why? Because even some of the best nurseries have
been afflicted with teenage retail syndrome: The counter help has no
initiative, no common sense, and no manners. So, calling on the phone means
being put on hold and forgotten. Used to be you could call these places and
get an adult who, if busy, would take your name & number and call you back
about whatever you were looking for, but no more.

OK...I'm done bitching.

Also forgot, Jeff & Jackie, Tennessee supplies to a local grower here
without any issues. I've never ordered from them and can't find them
on Garden Watchdog. Good luck!

http://www.daylilybiz.com/html/about_us.html

I think it's the fault of Wal Mart, at least locally, for creating a culture
where price is more important than service. Here, it's impossible to get
through a cashier's line in less than 20 minutes - even the express lines,
because the bobble-head teenage cashiers are busy yacking between each
other.

"Pen" wrote in message
om...
My apologies, I remember the TR syndrome thread.


"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
I always try to do that. It's getting harder, though, unless one wants
to
drive all over the county. Why? Because even some of the best nurseries
have
been afflicted with teenage retail syndrome: The counter help has no
initiative, no common sense, and no manners. So, calling on the phone
means
being put on hold and forgotten. Used to be you could call these places
and
get an adult who, if busy, would take your name & number and call you
back
about whatever you were looking for, but no more.

OK...I'm done bitching.

Doug Kanter wrote:
I think it's the fault of Wal Mart, at least locally, for creating a
culture
where price is more important than service.

Wal-Mart took advantage of the cultural shift, but they didn't create
it. They were just a regional chain not much different from other
regional discounters, and their national big-buddy, K-Mart, when the
value of service left our economy.

Mostly it has to do with choice. As urban areas became a center of
despair surrounded by a ring of suburban sprawl, people became more
mobile. They had to. Even if they had been interested in waiting for the
bus, the distances to be traveled required prompter service than mass
transportation could provide. Thus the car became a dominant part of our
lives, along with the ability to easily hunt down the lowest price.

If anything, the supermarkets are to blame. Every week they were sending
ads to everyone's home touting that you could buy a can of beans for a
cent less than the other store. And the other store was bragging that
their cans of corn were a cent less expensive.

Today we're seeing a resurgence of the specialty departments (bakery,
meat, produce, for example) after three decades of seeing those
departments becoming less and less about personal service. Competing on
price required it, and nowhere else in our society was it happening more
than in the grocery business.

Discount big-boxes grew from two influences: The old "dime store" (or
the 5 and 10 for those around before inflation saw the 5 disappear), and
as a market for overstock from the large department stores. Wal-Mart
came from the dime store side of the family, while Target came from the
department store side of the family. But coming from the department
store side of the family didn't automatically make a store more upscale.
J.C. Penneys had a chain named Treasure Island in the Midwest, and it
was one of the junkyiest places I ever saw. Wal-Mart is upscale compared
to them.

Technology has had it's part in the culture of low prices, too. And not
just in it's implementation by those in the distribution channels. The
people who hunt for the best price online today are not of the same ilk
as those who shopped by mail order catalog a couple generations ago.

At one time low price also meant low quality. Wal-Mart still has a lot
of junk, including items specifically built cheap to keep the price
down. But Costco has some pretty high quality items at a low price.
You're going to find less service at Costco than at Wal-Mart, though.

Wal-Mart has become the new Microsoft. Their the company that it's
fashionable to blame everything on. But what they're guilty of is taking
the best advantage of a situation. Sam Walton and Bill Gates get painted
as satin personified, but they are really just examples of the American
Dream taken to the max. They didn't create the situations they took
advantage of. They just had the vision to see the situation that
existed, and found a way to take advantage of it.

Wal-Mart didn't create the desire for low prices, and lousy service.
They just took advantage of what we already wanted to do. They didn't
turn us into addicts. They just continue to supply us.

BTW... It's also fashionable to cry "buy local". But how many of us owe
our income to our employer's ability to do business beyond the local
boundaries? If we all bought local, we'd have fewer choices, and many
(more) of us would be unemployed.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
See My Christmas Lights:
http://www.holzemville.com/xmas2004/

"Warren" wrote in message
news:0eRpd.467567$D%.236411@attbi_s51...

Competing on
price required it, and nowhere else in our society was it happening more
than in the grocery business.

Regardless of what the Sunday circulars may lead you to believe, marketing
on price is something the grocery business left behind about 5 years ago.

Doug Kanter wrote:
"Warren" wrote in message
news:0eRpd.467567$D%.236411@attbi_s51...

Competing on
price required it, and nowhere else in our society was it happening
more
than in the grocery business.

Regardless of what the Sunday circulars may lead you to believe,
marketing
on price is something the grocery business left behind about 5 years
ago.


The key word was "was".

You blamed the origin on Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart came well after the
"was" timeframe referred to. And the grocery business left it behind a
little longer than 5 years ago, but only after a few decades of building
their empires on it.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
See My Christmas Lights:
http://www.holzemville.com/xmas2004/

"Warren" wrote in message
news:0dTpd.468347$D%.225440@attbi_s51...
Doug Kanter wrote:
"Warren" wrote in message
news:0eRpd.467567$D%.236411@attbi_s51...

Competing on
price required it, and nowhere else in our society was it happening
more
than in the grocery business.

Regardless of what the Sunday circulars may lead you to believe,
marketing
on price is something the grocery business left behind about 5 years
ago.


The key word was "was".

You blamed the origin on Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart came well after the
"was" timeframe referred to. And the grocery business left it behind a
little longer than 5 years ago, but only after a few decades of building
their empires on it.

I think WM's success is based on something else, but I don't think about it
often because it's frightening to think that of all the reasons people do a
certain thing, stupidity may be at the top of the list.

"Warren" wrote in news:0eRpd.467567$D%.236411
@attbi_s51:

(big old snip)

J.C. Penneys had a chain named Treasure Island in the Midwest, and it
was one of the junkyiest places I ever saw. Wal-Mart is upscale
compared
to them.

(another big old snip)

Is this the same as the Treasure City stores that were in Lincoln,
Nebraska? I remember riding with Mom up there as a kid in the 70s, we
always shopped at the south store (highway 2 and 27th street) and ate at
the Burger Chef (before the chain got absorbed by Hardee's - isn't this
another blast from the past). Then crossing highway 2 and it was all
farmland south of there (now its all subdivisions for 5-6 miles... sigh).
I remember the stores were pretty junky, but coming from a little town an
hour's drive away, it was as close to an adventure as we got. That store
is a Shopko now, and the north store on 48th (mom never went there, it
meant she had to drive through Lincoln to get there, and she hated
driving in larger town) had a 'new to you' clothing and household goods
store last I saw.

Richard

http://www.samhillgardens.com - daylily source in the midwest (to keep
this on topic)

Doug, Doug, Doug,

Buying local is only as good as you make it. Buying Daylilies (or any
perennial for that matter) from anyone other than a specialty nursery
is an open invitation for problems. Even most of the Garden Centers I
have come in contact with are selling Tissue Cultured plants and it
really isn't that difficult for plant lables to get lost or switched.

Some of the best and nicest Daylilies I have bought have been by mail.
But you do still have to be careful about who you buy from.
I have a rather lager clump of HYPERION in one of my back beds, it is a
lovely old cultivar, registered in 1924 with the American Hemmerocallis
Society. I'd be very happy to share a few fans with you in the
Spring.E-mail me about it and any others you may be looking for. I
will have several cultivars for sale in the Spring.

Some of the Dayliliy growers I have bought plants from include MARIETTA
GARDENS, FAVORITE THINGS DAYLILY GARDENS, as well as a number of other
hobby growers and hybridizers. Both of these mentioned can be found
through a google seach. Be prepared to have your socks blown off! If
you do a general search for Daylily Gardens, you'll get several hundred
links.

Hemmaholic
See my personal site: http://damselfairsdaylilies.tripod.com/dmslfr/

Thank you - I may be in touch. Wish I had something to share, but the
property I just bought is a wasteland. The previous owners planted almost
nothing, except for some "mystery bulbs" which I dug up while removing a
tacky post light from a circular planting area full of weeds. Oh...and they
planted some sort of daylilly in a hole full of pure sand, up against the
garage where 3 ft eaves kept it from getting any water.


"Hemmaholic" wrote in message
oups.com...
Doug, Doug, Doug,

Buying local is only as good as you make it. Buying Daylilies (or any
perennial for that matter) from anyone other than a specialty nursery
is an open invitation for problems. Even most of the Garden Centers I
have come in contact with are selling Tissue Cultured plants and it
really isn't that difficult for plant lables to get lost or switched.

Some of the best and nicest Daylilies I have bought have been by mail.
But you do still have to be careful about who you buy from.
I have a rather lager clump of HYPERION in one of my back beds, it is a
lovely old cultivar, registered in 1924 with the American Hemmerocallis
Society. I'd be very happy to share a few fans with you in the
Spring.E-mail me about it and any others you may be looking for. I
will have several cultivars for sale in the Spring.

Some of the Dayliliy growers I have bought plants from include MARIETTA
GARDENS, FAVORITE THINGS DAYLILY GARDENS, as well as a number of other
hobby growers and hybridizers. Both of these mentioned can be found
through a google seach. Be prepared to have your socks blown off! If
you do a general search for Daylily Gardens, you'll get several hundred
links.

Hemmaholic
See my personal site: http://damselfairsdaylilies.tripod.com/dmslfr/