background checks – Page 2 – Hopeful Romantics

Pitfalls of a Branded Economic Culture

Brand names have always been important. For years, a good brand can mean everything from quality and reliability to status and social cache. But in the last twenty five years or so brand names have evolved into “branding” as a cultural and marketing phenomenon. Without proper branding, products and services can either fall by the wayside or play second fiddle to those that have been served up to consumers and businesses with the proper branding identification.

We have become dependent upon branding. Without it, it would appear, few consumers could judge the quality of a product on its own merits. Without branding we lack the know how to determine how one product may differ from another in the way it is made, crafted, or serviced. We can’t really ascertain how it performs, whether in the laundry cycle or on the road. Despite the Internet and all the information sources we have available, there are relatively few places the average consumer can educate himself on the true character and craftsmanship of any given product. We know little about the skill it takes to make something just so, the materials used and how they are superior from the knock off varieties.

So we brand products and services and generate enough marketing that consumers believe either the truth or the hype, depending on the goods. The branding culture has had a tremendous effect on consumer habits and they way they shop. Our economy is based largely on consumerism, and the perception of someone’s wealth and position in society is what drives much of our economy. The lines of demarcation is such that without wearing, using or somehow adhering to the socially approved brands, you are considered a lesser person with no taste, no wealth and hardly any social distinction. Some people really don’t care about all that, but most do.

This kind of mindset certainly has its conveniences. You really don’t have to think much about what you are buying in order to cater to your own self-perceptions. You don’t have to know much about the product itself, but just the product elevates you to a certain social category. No matter that the product is actual quality in terms of construction ad design, the fact that it is perceived as such is all most consumers really need to make their shopping day.

To build their client bases, retail outlets especially rely on stocking branded products. You must cater to your targeted clientele. If you stock this product you are considered a lower level, big box type of retailer. If you stock that brand, then you are the mid-line, department store type of retailer. And at the upper echelon, you must stock the brands that cause shoppers to perceive you as exclusive. Coupled with the design of your venue and its geographic location, shoppers know you are ready to service their kind of folk.

But with the economic downturn, branding may have backfired. With reports of store closings, maybe 70 odd thousand retail outlets across the country, it is becoming abundantly clear that no one really needs all these venues. Surely, the economic dowturn is the largest factor, but perhaps this financial crisis has shed light on a problem that has existed for quite some time. Simply put, no matter where you go, you are finding the same merchandise in every place you shop. One store has no distinction from another. It is all the same stuff.
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You can go to any city on the planet and, largely, it is all the same stuff. It may vary from one venue to the other, but each venue offers the same merchandise on its social and economic level as the one you found the the last city you visited. In fact, you might be shopping in the same chain, buying the same stuff. Only the city you shop in is different.

So if everyone has the same offerings, small wonder retailers are going out of business, left and right. Small wonder consumers are reluctant to buy anything. Not only are they short of cash and credit, but they already have a half dozen of whatever it is being offered in any outlet at any given time. I hear friends tell me, “who needs it? I already have plenty of those.”

In a nation that prides itself in originality, there are few places carrying original goods. Perhaps it is time to see more retail outlets offering smaller batches of merchandise from original designers and suppliers. I realize there are economies of scale, but with staples there are alternate solutions to overcoming the challenges of economy of scale. It would be nice for a change to not see everyone wearing the same thing or finding in a house the same layout as the last house. With some merchandise, pots and pans, for example, sure it will be the same. But furniture?

Perhaps we need a more educated consumer. Pundits claim we are educated through the Internet, but do we really know the difference in woods in furniture, the types of finish, the distinctions in quality? Having watched shoppers in furniture stories, I would think not. In fact, the level of ignorance about the goods we are laying out money for is fairly astounding.

Maybe one way to stimulate this economy is to be a little more original. To understand quality and craftsmanship and realize the best things are built to last. Use them, wear them and allow them to take on the vintage textures of an original creation. Don’t buy junk, because it has a label you can recognize.

Of course the original designers in time may become popular. Once they do they will scale up production as people rush to buy their goods. They will buy blindly, with great faith it will boost their status in the eyes of others. And then these original products will become so popular we will have…branding. Oh, well.

Tex Ritter to John Ritter…Cowboy’s Luck of the Draw

Tex Ritter and John Ritter were father and son, respectively. Tex Ritter was born Woodward Maurice Ritter. Hardly a cowboy name. John Ritter was born John Ritter, a cowboy name, but the son was not the cowboy. Maurice Ritter changed his name to Tex and the rest was history. John Ritter stayed on as John, and the rest was also history.

Both were famous in their own right. Both had successful careers. Tex Ritter was one of the more famous post-war singing cowboys. He made a slew of record albums. He appeared in movies and played on Broadway. He did concerts around the country and around the world. He sang at the Grand Ol’ Opry and appeared on television. He was arguably best known for singing the title song to the Academy Award Winning Film, High Noon. The song was entitled High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling). The song too won the Academy Award.

Tex’s voice projected soulful masculinity. He was a voice of the West, at least the West of our fantasies and wishes. He sung about drinking and poker, romancing, the usual cowboy stuff. He made you believe it. He was the fifth person to be inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame. He was inducted as well into other Western heritage and performance organizations. The list is a long one.

John was no slouch either. He became famous as one of the three leads in the hit series, “Three’s Company.” He guest starred and appeared on numerous television shows. He was in films. He rendered a remarkable performance in Slingblade, which also won an Academy Award.
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Tex was heavyset. He lived in a different era and appeared to be one not overly concerned about cholestorol or fat content in food. I don’t know if he smoked, but it is reasonable to think he liked to eat and maybe have a nip or two.

John was more of the contemporary man. He was concerned about health. He looked good, kept fit, wasn’t stocky like the old man. He was a nice guy with a good attitude, and it is reasonable to believe he was never abusive to himself nor to others.

Both father and son have stars on Hollywood Boulevard. They are the only father-son team to be so honored, especially for different categories. There was something else they had in common. Both died of congenital heart defects. Tex died thirty years before John. Tex, the stocky guy who didn’t watch his diet, passed away at 68 years of age. John was only 54 when he died.

So what’s this all mean, besides the fact that we should remember guys who were so talented? Guys who brought a little something to our lives. You can live healthy, and you should, but you can still die young. It seems at times if it is in the cards and a great deal of your mortality is simply in the luck of the draw. I though of this while watching High Noon for the umpteenth time and thinking of poor John, as well as his father. I thought about a friend of mine who lived clean and exercised more than any human I know. She is a relatively young woman. Yet she is sick and dying. Her father had the same disease.

I guess you can’t duck the luck of the draw.

Costco at Thanksgiving and the Battle for Pumpkin Pie

Everybody wants a slice of the pie. Pumpkin pie, that is. It is tasty and seasonal. Pumpkin pie is well worth fighting for. Just ask some of the customers at Costco.

Mumbai had its terrorists. Wal-Mart has its trampled workers. Costco has its pumpkin pie. While the world recoils at the horrible slaughter in the Indian City, or the poor guy who was run over at 5 A.M. by a brutally zealous Long Island crowd, Costco shoppers kicked off the holiday season by shoving each other out of the way in quest of the great seasonal dessert. I mean, if you can’t find your pumpkin pie at Costco, where else can you find it?

This, of course, to the saner among us is a rhetorical question. Pumpkin pie is everywhere this time of year. Albeit it, is is neither as large a pie as those served up at Costco, nor is it as cost-effective. Costco pumpkin pies are big and relatively inexpensive. When you are watching your bucks, it’s a good place to pick up three or four for the Thanksgiving dinner at a very good price. It’s not worth the risk of getting hurt for it. Not offended, but physically hurt.

There was a battle for the pumpkin pies. For dozens, it was a principle worth fighting for. They needed dessert and they were going to get it no matter who got in their way. Old women, small children, the nerdy, the needy, doesn’t matter. Keep you hands off my pumpkin pie.

You see,the Costco bakery ovens can handle a mere sixty pies an hour. That is going full tilt. This of course is usually more than sufficient. But come the holiday season when the craving comes for pumpkin pie, things are very, very different. When you have hundreds of customers standing around waiting until the next round of pies come out of the oven. And when there aren’t enough to go around, the flimsy veneer slides off the patina of civilization, and the battle is on.

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In this case, I expect some attorney will claim Costco was negligent by using bakery ovens that could only turn out sixty pies an hour. And when the Costco workers, attempting to be fair, tried to limit one pie to every party, this poor excuse sharing the wealth elevated mere negligence to cruelty and deprivation. Human rights were violated.

Human rights? Don’t laugh. Family values were violated. Every family member needs at least a couple, few slices. Piece of the pie! Isn’t that what America is all about? Otherwise, what will do with all that extra whipped cream? Because any fool knows you can’t eat the whipped cream without the pumpkin pie. You can’t have your turkey without the expectation of pumpkin pie. Lack of pumpkin pie could result in serious disillusionment and a grievous sense of loss.

Sharing was not an option. Customers elbowed and shoved each other out of the way. A melee broke out in the bakery section. People weren’t getting their pumpkin pie. And those that did, were only allowed to buy one instead of the four they were planning to have for that special Thanksgiving dinner.

I am not one to mince words about the assault on the quality of life and the decline of manners and etiquette. And certainly there are things to be said for our national obesity and smaller portions of everything would best promote the general well being. A trip through Costco should tell you that. Double wides in every aisle. Double wide shuffling through in somnambulistic stupor. Until you take away their pumpkin pie. Then they come to life.

We have heard candidates and pundits talk about the quality of life and the need to make adjustments. For the sake of our country, they say, we need to sacrifice. We have to learn to do without, and we have to think more about our neighbors. So come election night we hold hands and look to the future. We are promised change. Or not. But what we didn’t get was pumpkin pie.

CSI Is Just Another TV Show In Los Angeles

The public sure loves its true crime stories. The public also loves television shows that approximate true crime, like CSI, which most know stands for Crime Scene Investigation. The CBS Television Network programs CSI in a number of cities. The cities range from New York, Las Vegas, Miami, but not Los Angeles.

The show is produced from Los Angeles, but any producer who chooses to approximate a true crime cop show, using LA as the background, better move the bar that much further from fact toward fiction. The same my hold true for New York, Miami and the other cities where the show is located as well. The intrepid cops who solve these difficult cases my in reality be confronting the hardships and obstacles found in the Los Angeles labs.

In Los Angeles, cases are severely backlogged, there is gross mismanagement and alleged lack of supervision in the divisions responsible for both the fingerprint samples and the DNA. There is a stuff shortage, a misplacement of specimens. Court cases are backlogged and trials are often delayed. There are inaccuracies and errors. Critics claims the LA Police Department has no plan as to how to rectify this grievous series of foul ups.

The century old wonder of the fingerprint is somewhat of a fallacy. The crime scene unit investigators are only able to recover fingerprints from any one of the 2,400 annual crimes scenes about 60% of the time. And then when the files, or fingerprints, are misplaced, the adeptness and fortitude we admire on on CSI, the TV Show is lost in CSI, the reality.

As far as DNA is concerned, there are about seven thousand cases where the specimens are backlogged. To be kind the Lab personnel is extremely understaffed. The City lacks the money and he people to conduct what most would deem truly efficient investigations. With forthcoming budget cuts, the rather dire conditions that have been reported in the Los Angeles Times among other places, may not be getting any better.

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I realize that it is tough to be a cop. It is tough to be a police lab technician in a large city where despite all reverie that violent crime has gone down there is still plenty to go around. Yes, it’s tough to be a cop and it is tough to be the lab technician. But it’s a lot tougher to be a crime victim.

Crime victims expect justice. They should get it. Often they don’t. Los Angeles has seen more than a few cases where hte obviously guilty were set free. In some cases they were free to do it again. But with crime victims there is a need to believe in some criminal and societal code. A moral and ethical code where the powers that be will do their very best to bring the criminal to justice.

Increasingly, we see their very best is lacking. Their very best isn’t even good. So when you are a victim of rape and you are looking for justice, for some form of retribution that will at least in some small way alleviate the shock and terror you have experienced, along with injury to body and psyche, you expect to encounter the long arm of the law and not delays and excuses.

Which makes this all worse I fear is that with the economic downturn crime and unemployment are among the few things that will rise. People get desperate and even the more restrained and less violent of criminals may be prompted to commit violent criminal acts. The streets will be more dangerous, and the criminals will know by the time the labs get around to retrieving their DNA and fingerprint samples they could possibly die of old age.

After the collapse of our economy , for those of you who can’t experience one more shock and disillusionment, keep your eyes on CSI. It’s a better world on your flat screen TV.